The Walls Crumble and Fall
by Beth Abelseth
Summary: Jareth is forced to wait several years before Sarah wishes to see the Labyrinth again, and this time he has a wish of his own that only Sarah can grant him. However, there is also a mysterious curse that may mean the destruction of the labyrinth itself.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: This story picks up with the ending in the novelization rather than the movie. which leaves the impression that Sarah isn't going to stay in touch with her friends and is going to leave her adventures in the labyrinth as part of her past. Throughout the story, there will be references to both the novelization and the original movie. (Of course I don't own anything that was part of either the book or the movie)_

**********************************************

**Chapter One: The Second Wish**

When she asked him to take the baby, he had been amused. When she demanded the baby back, he had felt just the faintest twinge of excitement. When it became clear that she was going to beat the labyrinth, he had felt annoyed. When she arrived at the castle, he'd dared to hope, but only just a little. When she said the words that freed herself and her baby brother, he'd been relieved. Now, he was just plain angry. A goblin wandered too close to his throne and he kicked it across the room.

After countless years of taking babies and watching mortals fail to retrieve them, he had finally found someone capable of beating his labyrinth and of beating him. The only problem was, until she called on him again, he didn't really have a way to go see her. Until she called on any of them again, there would be no way to go to her.

He would have to wait. Jareth hated waiting. He felt like he'd been doing it for most of his life, and that had been a very, very, very long time. He plucked a crystal from the air and gazed into it, thinking of Sarah, the girl who had bested his labyrinth, and bested him. She was sitting in front of her mirror, talking to – was that Hogwart? Or Hoggle? Not that the name mattered. And what was that old buffoon saying? He could just barely hear, "sometimes, to need is … to let go".

"Oh wow!" The ridiculous hat crowed, "And that's just for starters!"

"Damn." The Goblin King muttered under his breath. Now he would really have to wait.

* * *

Packing for college elicited a mixture of emotions from Sarah. She was having fun going through her old memories, but she was sad to be leaving, and she was getting rather tired of boxes. She had secured a place at her choice university, prepared to study theater, acting, and the dramatic arts. Her step-mother kept insisting that she at least double-major and do something practical at the same time, and as usual her father took her step-mother's side. Nevertheless, Sarah's stubborn streak was showing proud and she firmly refused to study anything but acting.

Opening one of the drawers in her vanity table, she caught sight of something she hadn't seen in years. It was a small, battered book, titled _The Labyrinth_.

* * *

A large, dark eye popped open, and a green scaly goblin with blue horns sat up straight.

* * *

Sarah gently lifted the book from it's place in the drawer and ran her fingers along its beaten edges. Memories of Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo, and even the Goblin King fluttered through her mind as she flipped through the pages.

* * *

"Hey!" The first goblin kneed another goblin in the ear. "Wake up!" It hissed. "Everyone, wake up!" It hissed louder, kicking and punching at hair and teeth and claws and wings and feet.

* * *

Sarah had always remembered her journey to rescue her little half-brother, although Toby had seemed to have to completely forgotten all about it.

* * *

"She's going to say the words!" The first goblin with the green scales and blue horns jumped up and down, clapping its hands. The other goblins all stood up straighter and strained their ears to listen.

* * *

Sarah closed the book, sighing dreamily. "I wish I could go back to the labyrinth," she said softly to no one in particular, "just once, to see my friends again. Now," she added, eyes wandering over to her window and staring up at the stars in the night-time sky, "before I leave for college."

She almost missed the owl, white in the moonlight, black against the stars. It helped that the owl was flying toward her open window. Before Sarah had time to stand and shut it, the animal burst into the room and swooped down to land on the floor. She would have screamed and yelled for her father to come and chase it away, but the owl immediately started to change shape. The feathers stretched and contorted as the animal itself grew very tall – taller than Sarah herself, in fact. The snow-white owl changed color as well, turning black mostly, except for the head, which remained pale, and the hair which grew long and dramatic, and very blond.

His eyes were what gave him away. It was hard to forget eyes like his.

"Jareth," Sarah whispered, touching the back of her hand to her mouth. She didn't dare call out to her parents now. There was nothing they could do. Instead, she backed away from him until she bumped into the chair in front of her vanity table and heavily sat down. "What are you doing here?"

"Granting your wish." He answered easily, smirking as he plucked a crystal from thin air. "You did say you wanted to go back to the labyrinth, now, before you leave for school, didn't you?"

"What? How did you even hear that?" Sarah's hair swished side to side as she looked around her room for the object that had betrayed her. _The Labyrinth_ was still clutched in one of her hands.

Jareth's smirk widened into a grin. "Well, that's new. You never considered that question the first time I came to you."

"No," Sarah sighed, looking down at the book in her lap. "I guess not." More clearly, she asked, "I don't suppose telling you I didn't mean it would do anything?"

The Goblin King chuckled insincerely and countless hideous little voices burst into riotous laughter. The voices continued to giggle and snort after Jareth stopped and glared at the walls of the room. "Shut up!" He yelled. The voices ceased.

Sarah stifled a smile.

"No." The Goblin King had turned his glare on the young woman before him. "It doesn't work like that. You made a wish, and I am here to grant your wish." He knelt before her and held up the crystal. "You do want to return to the labyrinth, don't you, Sarah?"

"Yes..." she said uncertainly, staring into the small bauble. "I do want to go back to the labyrinth." There were so many colors, dancing one upon the other, inside the clear ball.

"And you would like to stay there for some time, wouldn't you, Sarah?"

"Yes, " her voice was stronger, her eyes searching deeper into the little crystal – was that Ludo lumbering through a forest?

"Just think," Jareth added as he watched her attention getting sucked into the images of the crystal, "you could have anything you wanted, the labyrinth itself would be at your beck and call," desperation crept into his words, his voice lowering, "you could stay there forever, and never have to work a day in your life, and you would never, never be alone, Sarah." Now he was barely whispering, "would you like that, Sarah?"

"Yes, I would like that," before her, the clear ball reflected fancy dresses, parties, adventures in the labyrinth, lazy days spent in a beautiful garden, Sir Didymus reciting poetry for her.

"You only have to wish for it." Jareth turned his blue and brown eyes up on the young woman's face, watching her long nose, full lips, dark eyebrows. "Just make the wish," he whispered, "and I will grant it."

"I wish..." Sarah began, feeling a strange warmth within her. "I wish..." for just a fraction of a second, she saw the Goblin King's face distorted in the glass. She looked up and found herself staring into Jareth's mismatched eyes. "Oh." She knew that what she felt was not fear, but she also knew that it was not joy. Her heart fluttered in her chest.

The Goblin King forced the corners of his mouth to twist upward as he tossed the crystal up into the air without looking away or blinking. Sarah continued to stare into his eyes. "You can think of your third wish after I've granted your second." His tone was gentle, but his throat was tight.

Jareth rose to his feet and Sarah was suddenly able to look around her. She was standing in the throne room, in the castle beyond the Goblin City. She remembered the raised dais and the throne and the buzzard nesting in the crown. Sarah watched as Jareth stretched out into his circular throne, lifting one leg over one arm. "Welcome," he spread his hands to indicate the empty room, "again."

"Thanks." Sarah responded absently while her mind raced. "Is there any way I can go home?"

"Without even looking for your friends?" Jareth gave her a mocking pout. "Tsk, tsk. Wasn't that the whole point of your wish? 'Just once, to see my friends again.' I do believe those were your exact words, Sarah." Saying her name made it hard for him to keep his face contorted into such a sour shape. He stood, walked around his throne so that he could compose his features without her noticing. "Go. Find them. Fulfill your wish."

"But, my family – they'll notice I've gone missing."

Jareth waved a black-gloved hand in the air. "I can reorder time, Sarah, or have you forgotten?"

"Oh." She didn't move. For some reason, she had suddenly noticed that he was wearing the same white fluffy-sleeved shirt, black leather vest, gray pants, and black boots as when she had first met him.

"Well?" He asked her sharply, standing behind his throne. "What are you waiting for?"

"I..." Sarah was aware that she was acting like an idiot. This was the Goblin King, after all, the man who had kidnapped her brother and tormented her entire journey through the labyrinth. "How will I find them?"

Jareth smirked. "How _will _you find them?" He crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, you'll never figure that out until you start looking. The sooner you fulfill your wish, the sooner you will be able to return to your very boring, very mundane life, go to college, and try your hand at acting, if that really is your heart's desire."

"What do you mean, 'if'? Of course that's my heart's desire! What do you even know about my heart?" Sarah felt her face burning with heat.

His smirk remained and his blue and brown eyes sparkled. "More than you, obviously. But that's alright. You'll figure it out. I have every confidence in you." He twirled around the throne and elegantly laid himself out on it again, leg over the arm. "Now, off with you. Or shall I have the goblins chase you out of the city?"

Sarah took a step back, her skin crawling, but she hesitated, "if I find my friends, will you send me home?"

"So many questions, so little time." He held out his hand and the 13-hour clock appeared. "You have 12 hours and 55 minutes to find them – Hogbrain, the fox, and the beast. If you have not found them within 13 hours, you will never leave here or see your family again." The words left his mouth and wrapped themselves around her body like iron chains.

_Finally_, Sarah thought to herself, _now I know what I'm up against._ She nodded quickly, then turned and ran from the throne room, through the winding halls and stairways of the castle, thinking of the way out and the Goblin City beyond.

"Silly girl," Jareth murmured to himself, "you didn't even notice that I hadn't answered your question." He reached into the air and plucked out a crystal. "Will you never see your own power?"

***

Sarah's feet pounded against the tiles of the castle floor. She wondered how she would ever find her friends. Sir Didymus had started out in the bog of eternal stench and Sarah was not looking forward to going anywhere near there again. Hoggle, she decided, was probably back at the beginning of the labyrinth, spraying fairies, and she was sure that if she could just get back there, then she would be able to find him, and he could help her find Ludo and Sir Didymus. Hoggle knew the labyrinth pretty well. Even if he wouldn't be brave enough to go with her all the way, at least he could give her directions or something.

She came to an open doorway and a cobbled path that led to the city. Tired, huffing, she walked briskly, catching her breath as she went. At least she didn't have to worry about Toby this time. She knew that he and her parents were safe and sound at home, and that none of what happened in the labyrinth would affect them, unless she didn't go home. But that wasn't going to happen. She was going to find her friends, and then demand that Jareth let her go. He couldn't keep her there forever. She wouldn't let him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Volleyball**

The Goblin City was nothing like she remembered. Before, it had been deserted except for the army that had been attacking her. Now it was full of all shapes and sizes of goblins, shouting at each other, buying and selling goods, chasing each other down the street. Sarah watched as a pair of goblin children distracted a fruit merchant while a third child snatched a bagful of peaches and darted off around the corner. The fruit merchant didn't realize what was going on until too late, and he couldn't leave his fruit stand unattended unless he was willing to lose all of his produce.

He grumbled, banged a fist on the table, and glared up at Sarah. "You gonna buy a peach or what, lady?"

"No. Sorry." Sarah ducked her head and walked on, down the street, toward the edge of the city.

Gradually, she became aware that every goblin she passed paused to stare at her as she went by. Some of them turned and whispered to each other. Sarah was able to hear words and parts of sentences.

"...brought her here..."

"...wished for..."

"...lonely king..."

"...companion worth..."

"...here forever..."

When she finally got to the gate where she and her friends had beaten the machine Humongous before, she felt a tug on the leg of her green legging. "Yes?" She asked uncertainly as she looked down at the small goblin child with a mass of vibrant orange fur on its head.

"Are you really going to marry the Goblin King?" His voice sounded just like the voice of any human child, but Sarah was too surprised by the words he said to notice.

"What?"

"The Goblin King," the little goblin boy repeated, tugging on her pant leg urgently, "are you going to marry him?"

"Um, well, no. No, I'm not. Where on earth would you get an idea like that?" Sarah wasn't exactly sure she was still on earth, but she felt that the phrase still applied.

The goblin boy stuck his thumb in his mouth, then turned when he heard a distant shout. He glanced back up at Sarah before he tottered off into the crowd that had gathered at the gate. Sarah looked out at the crowd of goblins, some thin, others wide, some tall, others short, and overall such an assortment of wings, claws, teeth, horns, fur, hair, and noses. She turned back to the doorway, which had opened, and stepped through. She could feel the goblins watching her silently while she left the city and entered the twisting, dangerous, challenging labyrinth.

"I solved it before," she told herself as she walked through the land of the rubbish people. "I can do it again. Even if I'm doing it backwards this time."

The rubbish people didn't take any notice of her, too consumed in managing their own possessions and adding to them. Sarah didn't take any notice of them, either. She only had a few hours to find everyone, and it had taken all of her time before just to find Toby, when she knew exactly where he was. Well, she had a fair guess about Hoggle, at least.

Beyond the land of the rubbish people, Sarah found herself wandering into a forest that smelled much too sweet to be anywhere near the bog of eternal stench. "Well," she reasoned aloud, "maybe I'll run into Ludo."

***

At first, the forest was pleasant enough, birds singing, small animals scampering through the brush. Every now and then, Sarah would call out for Ludo, getting no response. Then the forest began to change. The trees grew more densely and the birds twittered less and less until Sarah felt sure the only sound in this part of the forest were her own feet.

"Hey! Give me back my head!" Cackles of laughter answered the demand.

"Aw, c'mon, man, we ain't finished with volleyball yet!"

"Yeah, man. Volleyball!"

"So use someone else's head! Mine's getting bruised bad, man."

"Oh, well, bruises."

There was a loud smack.

"OW!"

Cackling laughter cascaded in the distance and a bright red ball of fur flew through the air to land at Sarah's feet. "HEY!" A long, toothy snout shouted, "IT'S THE LADY!"

Sarah hesitated. She remembered the Fireys, mostly for how they had tried to take her head off her shoulders. She started to turn and walk away, but now there were things moving in the growth of the forest and she could see tufts of red fur jumping around and moving steadily toward her.

"What you mean 'the lady'?"

"Yeah, man, what lady?"

"THE CASTLE LADY!" The head at Sarah's feet shouted.

"Wait, is that the one that couldn't take off her own head?"

"Yeah! That lady! Hey! She threw my head into the mud!"

"Yeah, and it took me hours to find my head!"

"Let's throw her head around for a while!"

"Yeah! Volleyball, man! Volleyball!"

"YEAH!" Screamed the head in front of her. "VOLLEYBALL!"

The first chicken-legged, red-furred monster burst out of the trees and Sarah turned and ran, shouting for her friends, "Ludo! Sir Didiymus! Hoggle! Someone! Help!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Jareth to the Rescue**

Jareth tilted his head as he gazed into the crystal. "You know, Sarah, I'm almost offended. But I suppose I'll have to live with just being 'someone' to you for now. You'll come around." He blew on the crystal as if it were a bubble and sent it drifting out of a window. He closed his eyes and raised his arms, feeling every piece of fabric in his clothes shifting into small white feathers.

* * *

"Hey! Lady! Come and play!" A Firey fell out of a tree and landed in front of her.

Sarah squealed, dodged the creature, and continued running, breathing heavily now. She knew that she would never be able to run forever, but feared that the fireys might be able to – or at least longer than she could. Her foot caught in a tree root and then her face was in the grass.

"Aha!"

"Caught you lady!"

"Gimme your head!"

Before she could even start to get up, leathery clawed hands clamped around her ears and pulled. "No! It's not supposed to come off! You'll kill me! I'll die!" As soon as she tried to kick out and punch at the creatures, each of her limbs was grasped in leathery clawed hands and pulled on.

"Don't be so uptight, lady!"

"Yeah, it's just your head."

"If you really need a new one, you can borrow mine!"

They all cackled uproariously at this suggestion.

Just when Sarah was sure she'd be torn to pieces and never be able to find her friends let alone go home, an owl screech tore through the air and the fireys stopped pulling.

"What's HE doing here?" One Firey demanded.

"HIS head don't come off neither."

"Oh, HE's no fun."

"Don't let him get the lady!"

"Yeah! Her head's ours fair 'n square!"

"Volleyball!"

There was a blast and Sarah felt the air whoosh as a tree crashed down nearby. The fireys paused, standing very still as they considered their options. Most of them vanished into the trees and plants, but one stood his ground. "I still got your head, lady, and I ain't letting go!"

Sarah started trying to get up despite the firey's firm hold on her ears, but found that putting any kind of weight on the ankle she tripped over was immensely painful. She groaned as she lay back down on the ground.

"What you doin here, man? This our territory! Go back to your throne! Hey wait! What you doin, man? This ain't cool, man!"

Then the creature was no longer holding on to Sarah's ears.

"Ha! Take that!" She looked up and saw the creature throw out an arm and scratch the cheek of a tall man, wearing gray pants, a white shirt, and a black vest. His black boots were very shiny and Sarah found herself wondering whether he wore a new pair every day or if they were just somehow unscuffable.

Jareth threw the creature into the trees, and looked down at Sarah. She searched his face for some sign of what was going through his mind, but stopped when she saw the streaks of blue on his cheek.

Sarah gasped in surprise, "you're bleeding!"

"I heal quickly." He told her simply, in a low voice that betrayed no emotion whatsoever. His expression was like stone.

After a moment of staring, Sarah tried to get up again, and fell as soon as she tried to put weight on her bad foot.

"Hey! Look! They're wounded, both of 'em!"

"Yeah! Let's get both their heads!"

"Volleyball!"

Without another word, without looking away from her, Jareth leaned down and scooped her up into his arms.

"Hey!" Sarah protested, "What are you doing?"

But the Goblin King had already started running, faster than Sarah had ever imagined possible for any mortal man. She threw her arms around his neck because she was afraid that if she fell, she would be injured far worse than just a twisted ankle – especially if the fireys were anywhere nearby. He kept running through the trees and the plants and green until they came to the edge of a cliff. Jareth jumped, and Sarah hid her face in his vest, clinging even more tightly to him.

Then he set her down on a rock, gently, but firmly removed her arms from around his neck, and took her injured ankle in his hand, looking it over carefully.

"Hey! Where'd they go!"

"Down there!"

"Someone jump!"

"I ain't jumpin that!"

"Volleyball!"

"Hey! That's MY head!"

The fireys chased each other away, back into the forest.

Feeling an odd heat around her ankle, Sarah turned her attention downward and saw Jareth's hand hovering just over the injury, a golden glow radiating from his palm and enveloping her ankle. A moment later, the glow was gone, and Jareth looked up at her, his face still like stone.

"Your face!" She gasped and leaned forward to touch the scars that had only been bleeding wounds a moment earlier. Her fingers stopped just short of his face, though, when she remembered who this was. "How?" She asked, looking into his blue and brown eyes.

"I heal quickly." He told her again, in a voice just above a whisper, betraying still no emotion.

Sarah's hand broke through the last half-inch of air and her fingers brushed against his scars. They seemed like they were old and had been on the mend for days, if not weeks. They would be completely gone within just a few more minutes.

"Thank you." Sarah said slowly, tasting each syllable – _imagine!_, she thought to herself, _thanking JARETH for something!_

The Goblin King stood, never looking away from her gray eyes, never blinking, never changing his emotionless expression.

Sarah also stood, keeping locked on his mismatched eyes, testing her ankle before putting her full weight on it. She smiled with a realization. "There is goodness in you, isn't there?"

She felt as though his eyes were trying desperately to tell her something, but that all the rest of his face had completely locked down, as if he were trapped inside his own castle. Sarah stepped closer to him and reached up to touch his face again.

"Come, Ambrosius!" Rang a familiar, nasally call. "I tell you, there is nothing to be afraid of!"

Sarah's smile grew on her face and she turned toward the voice, shouting out, "Sir Didiymus!" When she looked back to where the Goblin King had been standing, she saw only a white owl flying high over the treetops. The grass was still depressed against the ground where his boots had stood.

"Bark!" Ambrosius came bounding through the trees and stopped just at Sarah's feet, sniffing and wagging his tail.

"Oh, hello!" Sarah knelt and scratched the dog's back, all around and under the little saddle that had been strapped to him.

"Why! My lady!" Sir Didymus bounced up to Sarah and gave her a deep bow. "Why hast thou returned? Hast the monstrous Goblin King stolen thy little brother again?"

"No, no. It's nothing like that." Sarah stopped scratching Ambrosius and smiled at the little fox knight. "I wished to come back. So I could see you and Ludo and Hoggle again, before I leave for college."

"Ah and I am glad that thou hast returned." Sir Didymus announced, then asked in a quiet voice, "but what is college, my lady?"

"It's a place, far away from my home, where I'll go to learn things."

"Mm," Sir Didymus mulled this over, "then perhaps this labyrinth is also a college?"

Sarah's smile grew. "Yes, Sir Didymus, I suppose you have a point. This labyrinth is very much like a college." _Except without indoor plumbing,_ she thought wryly to herself. "Tell me, good friend, would you be able to help me find Ludo and Hoggle. I would love to spend time with all three of you together."

"Why, yes, most certainly! Ambrosius!" The knight leaped atop his gallant steed. "I shall lead the way!"

And so Sarah continued her journey, walking through the forest, following Sir Didymus along what she realized after a while was actually a very small, nearly invisible path that wound through the trees. She was happy to be able to see Ludo and Hoggle again as well, and she was sure that once she had found them and spent some time with them, Jareth would have to send her home.

In her mind, she saw his face streaked with blue liquid.

"My lady?" Sir Didymus called from a little way ahead. "Is everything all right?" He galloped Ambrosius back to where Sarah was standing.

"Hm? Oh, yes. I just...Sir Didymus, could we talk while we walk?" She started forward again.

"Why, yes, my lady, most certainly. About what shall we discuss?"

Sarah smiled at the memory of an image of Didymus reciting her poetry in the crystal Jareth had shown her back in her bedroom. It felt so long ago. "I want to talk about Jareth."

"The Goblin King?" Sir Didymus looked over his shoulder and tilted his ear at the little smile on her face. "What dost thy wish to know?" He asked quietly.

"Everything." Sarah answered just as quietly. "Where did he come from? What made him what he is? Why is he always so mean? What does he want from life? What is his purpose here?"

"My, my, those are many questions indeed." Sir Didymus fixed his eyes on the path ahead of them and cleared his throat. "Well, my lady, I shall tell thee what I know."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: The Berry Patch**

Jareth frowned into the crystal. He was lounging on his throne, taking no notice of the goblins around him, which were griping with each other, stealing each other's piles of stones, and throwing things at the black chicken.

"Now, now, little fox." He grumbled, "that may not be the best approach. I may have to find another way to keep her here. If she could just lose a few hours somewhere..."

* * *

"I remember a time," Sir Didymus began with a far-off look in his beady fox eyes, "when I was just an animal, no sense of chivalry or knighthood, and then everything changed. Some new power came to the land, and I became aware. I heard later that there was a sorcerer living here now, and that he had proclaimed himself the Goblin King. That was about when I discovered the bridge in the bog of eternal stench, as they call it. I never understood the title myself. It was quite a lonely bridge, I thought, and decided that I should adopt it. Just like Ambrosius, right boy?" The dog woofed happily. "So, there I was, guarding my bridge, until you came along, of course, my lady. The first to actually ask for my permission to cross the bridge. It was quite a momentous occasion for us, was it not, Ambrosius?" The Dog woofed again.

Sarah smiled to herself at the sweetness of the little knight. "But what about Jareth? Don't you know anything else about him? Rumors, even?"

"Well," Sir Didymus pursed his black fox lips in thought. "There was a rumor once, about a prophecy. Or was it a curse? I'm afraid I can't say I remember which it was. I wonder if I can even remember what it said...it rhymed, I remember that much...oh how did it go? Ah! I remember:

The Goblin King shall rule his maze

Until a girl does seize his gaze

Then the walls will crumble and fall

The Goblin King be kind to all.

"Whatever it means," the knight went on, "I don't put a lot of stock in riddles such as that myself."

"Hmm," Sarah made the noise so that Didymus would think she was listening. Was it a curse or a prophecy, she wondered? Would the Goblin King stop ruling when the girl "seized his gaze"? What did it mean to "seize a gaze" anyway? Would the labyrinth crumble to dust as soon as this happened? If the labyrinth was destroyed, who would be left for the Goblin King to be kind to?

"Ah, my brother!" Sir Didymus charged ahead and Sarah looked up.

There was the enormous ginger monster, sitting in the middle of a patch of bushes, shoving berries into his mouth as if he had never tasted anything better.

_Food!_ Sarah thought, but aloud, she called, "Ludo! I'm back! Ludo!"

She ran into the berry patch and tried to hug her large, furry friend, but Ludo just shook her off and continued eating berries. Sarah stood back a little, watching as he ate. "Ludo? Is everything okay?"

"Why!" Sir Didymus exclaimed after popping a berry into his long mouth. "These are the most delicious berries I have ever had the pleasure of tasting! Eat, my lady! Thou must try some of these amazing berries!"

"Well," Sarah looked at Ludo again, who was chomping away, then noticed Ambrosius cowering on the other side of the berry patch. _What could that dog be so afraid of, _she wondered to herself. _It's just a berry._ Her stomach growled. "Alright. I guess I'll try one." She took the berry from Sir Didymus and very carefully dropped the little orange thing into her mouth.

An explosion of flavor washed over her tongue and tingled all the way down to her toes. Sarah's eyes bulged at the complexity of the taste. It was as if someone had taken a melon, sprinkled it with lime, added a few raspberries, and blended it all together in a creamy vanilla yogurt. Immediately, she reached down and yanked another berry off a branch. The berry she picked was immediately replaced with another bright orange sphere. Sarah couldn't believe how wonderful they were! She kept eating berry after berry until she was so stuffed she wasn't sure she could even swallow another one, but still she kept stuffing berries into her mouth.

Then something bumped into her and made her drop a berry. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" Sarah snapped.

Ludo growled back at her.

"What's this?" Sir Didymus jumped between them. "Friends fighting? I shan't stand for it!"

"He bumped me and made me drop a berry!" Sarah pointed her finger at him like a three-year-old.

"Sawah – bump – Ludo!" Ludo wailed in response.

Ambrosius barked from the other side of the berry patch. Sarah looked up and saw that the sun had moved quite a bit across the sky since since before they'd gone into the berries. In fact, it looked as though it was about to set. "Oh no!" She groaned and walked out of the berry patch, plopping down next to Ambrosius. "Oh no!" She groaned again into her hands. "No! No! No! Jareth! How could you?"

"There, there, my lady," Sir Didymus rushed to her side, "what hast that monster of a king done to upset thee?"

"He sent us here!" She waved her hand at the berry patch. "Or he made the berries appear, or he trapped Ludo there, or something. Somehow, I just know he had something to do with this. I've lost so much time! How are we ever going to get through the Labyrinth now? We won't be able to stop at all, even to rest, if we can help it."

"Sawah – sad." Ludo commented, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Ludo – sowwy."

"It's alright, Ludo." Sarah tried to smile at him, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

"It okay." Ludo told her and then sat down next to her and looked at the berries. "Good bewwies."

"Yes," Sarah answered him firmly, "they were good berries, and at least now we're very full, so we won't need food later. Hopefully. In any case, there's nothing else for it but to move forward. Fair or not, we walked into the berry bush, and we chose to eat them, didn't we? So I suppose whether or not Jareth had a hand in it, we really did do it to ourselves in the end anyway." She sighed and stood up. "Shall we go?" The brightness in her voice and smile seemed rather strained.

"Well said, my lady!" Sir Didymus hopped onto Ambrosius and took the lead again. "This way, my friends! We shall see the gallant Hoggle by dawn tomorrow!"

_I hope that's soon enough._ Sarah thought to herself, looking up at the beautiful setting sun. _At least the colors are nice_. Oranges, pinks, and vibrant crimsons streaked across the sky, coloring the clouds, the trees, and the walls the small group was approaching. Sarah gulped at her memories of this part of the labyrinth.

"Sir Didymus?" She asked, her voice wobbling slightly.

"Yes, my lady?" The knight paused at an opening in the wall.

"You know the walls in there shift, don't you? And the tiles in the floor?" She added, remembering her useless lip-stick-drawn arrows.

Sir Didymus nodded. "I have heard of such things. I regret to say that I am not so familiar with this part of the labyrinth. But I shan't back away, my lady. Know that your Sir Didymus is kind, brave, and true, and he shall lead his lady onward through the labyrinth without rest! Ho, Ambrosius! Let us enter!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Jareth's Memories**

Jareth was alone in his throne room. The goblins had all wandered out into the city to enjoy the night-time parties and pleasures available there. The Goblin King never joined them in this endeavor, partly because he was too large to fit into any of the buildings, but mostly because the goblins had never really been good company anyway. He sighed at the crystal he was holding in his hand. His leg was still draped over one arm of his curved throne.

"Oh, Sarah," he murmured, "I am sorry to cause you trouble, but I will not wait for you any longer." Even as he said it, he knew it was a lie. He could feel it, somewhere deep in his bones, that if this girl – no, this young woman – if she was able to escape him this time, then he would wait until she called on the labyrinth again. And if he wasn't able to trap her then, well, he dared not think of that possibility. He was the Goblin King, after all, and the Goblin King always got what he wanted.

* * *

They had walked late into the night, and the endless corridors had taken on a peaceful atmosphere, open at the top so that the stars could shine down on them, as well as the moon. Sarah was almost enjoying herself. She had completely forgotten that they were on a deadline and was simply walking along with her friends, searching for yet another friend. She wasn't even thinking about missing home, or her half-brother, or father, or step-mother.

Then the ground beneath her was gone, and she let out one short, quick scream as she fell, past dozens and dozens of hands. "Help!" She screamed at the hands, remembering that they had stopped her fall once before. "Help me!" Then she heard a light snoring pass quickly by her ear. "Sleeping!" She screamed as she continued to fall, trying to flail out and hit one to wake it up. "Since when did hands sleep?" She demanded of the sleeping hands. "You know it's just a phrase, right? It's supposed to mean you're tingly, not actually tired! Ow!"

She had finally landed, on a pile of soft and hard things, in a dark room. Her side ached where she had fallen on it, but she pulled herself up all the same and tried to the see the opening above, through which she had fallen. There wasn't even so much as a glimmer of light. Only the quiet snoring of the hands wafted down to her very faintly.

"Okay," she grumbled as she got painfully to her feet, "that WASN'T fair. I did nothing to help that along. Except step on the wrong piece of tile." She glared up at the hands, then took a deep breath. "Well, complaining isn't going to help. There must be a light around here somewhere..."

After fumbling around in the darkness for some time, she came upon a stub of candle and a book of matches. She struck a match and lit the candle, which didn't do a whole lot in the way of dispelling darkness, but she was able to recognize the oubliette. _How did Hoggle do it before? There was some kind of magic door, wasn't there?_ She continued to rummage around and stuck the candle to the first metal plate she found.

"Aha!" She lifted a large piece of wood with a small bronze knob on either side. "Now, where does it go?" Sarah looked all around, the walls barely visible in the shadows cast by the candlelight. "Maybe, over there..." if she squinted, she could see a rough rectangular outline where the door would probably just fit.

She took a step and kicked something that tinkled against the cobbled floor and glittered in the yellow light. Sarah set the door on it's side and leaned down to snatch up the clear ball. It seemed familiar. "Isn't Jareth always playing with these things?" She turned it over in her hands, thinking of Jareth, seeing his face streaked with blue again. "Why did he save me? I don't think I'll ever figure that out. He's always tormented me before, and claiming that he's helping me and doing what I asked for. But it's always so mean. Everything he does is so mean..." as she looked into the crystal, she noticed that the colors inside of it where shifting and changing. "What's that?" She held it closer to the light so that she could get a better look. "Jareth?"

She saw him pictured in his throne room, staring into a crystal just like the one in her own hand. Then it changed, and she saw a tiny blond baby with mismatched eyes, and a sleight young woman, wearing rich clothes from the thirteenth century, glaring down at the baby. "Oh, you horrid little monster," she growled at him, "they're calling me a witch now, all because of you and your horrid little eyes. I wish goblins would come and take you away from me right now! Then you'd have a life you deserve with all manner of ugly creatures, just like you. What was that?" She turned suddenly and left the child laying in a tiny wooden crib.

As Sarah looked into those eyes and that small face, she couldn't help thinking of Toby, and smiling. "You were a beautiful baby, Jareth. I'll admit that much." A goblin suddenly appeared and smiled with crooked, sharp, yellow teeth up at Sarah. It cackled and grabbed the baby. Then the young woman returned to crib and started calling out for her baby to come back, but only the sounds of goblin laughter answered her, until she subsided to crying by his crib.

"Well," Sarah mumbled under her breath, "you got what you asked for. If it wasn't what you wanted, you shouldn't have wished for it." She tilted her head then, listening to her own words echoing inside her mind. "If it wasn't what you wanted, then you shouldn't have wished for it," she repeated softly to herself. _I'm going to think more carefully before I go blurting out my next wish, _she promised herself.

Then the scene in the crystal changed, and she was looking at a boy, about eleven years old, wandering through the labyrinth, having adventures against some creatures she had encountered herself, and many that she had never seen or imagined before in her life. She couldn't help but smile at his boyish thirst for adventure and his assertion that he was the King of the Goblins. Naturally he was growing bigger and stronger than all the goblins. They were starting to fear him, and he found himself alone more and more.

He was running through the walled passages that Sarah had just been in, and suddenly fell, into the oubliette. Sarah jumped when she saw this, and looked around hurriedly, half afraid she would see Jareth as a boy suddenly land in the pile of things behind her. But no such thing happened, and instead she looked back into the crystal.

He stayed in the oubliette for a long time, before he figured out the door, and he alternated between crying in depression and loneliness and raging in anger. When he finally did figure out the door and left the oubliette, Sarah felt there was something different about him. Whatever had been left of his inclination for goodness – and who could really hold on to goodness when he was being raised by goblins? – seemed to have vanished.

Sarah found herself feeling sorry for him. "Oh, Jareth. If only you hadn't been here alone for so long. Goblins can't possibly make good friends." She sighed and watched as the boy grew into the man she knew, waiting for babies to be offered, stealing them away, sending their parents and caretakers through the dangers of the labyrinth.

All of them failed. No one had ever been able to retrieve their baby – except Sarah. She considered that and decided she had wasted too much time already. She tucked the little ball into her shirt sleeve, which had a piece of elastic at the cuff and was baggy all the way up, and picked up the door once again.

"Well, I'm not going to stay here long enough to despair of anything."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Saved by Jareth...Again**

Jareth frowned intensely at his crystal, unsure of what to make of this. She seemed to be softening to him, that was certain, and that was welcome, but he wasn't entirely sure he'd wanted her to know about his past. If only she hadn't found that blasted crystal. Jareth sighed and searched out the tunnel Sarah would enter into from the oubliette. His eyebrows arched upward.

"Oh, Sarah. If you are ever going to awaken to your own power, now would be a very good time to do so." The Goblin King held his breath.

* * *

Sarah looked cautiously through the door. All seemed clear, so she stepped through, leaving the candle in the room behind her. There were sconces along the walls and grates up in the high ceiling. There wasn't very much light, but there was barely enough to see where she was going. She was the process of deciding which direction to go, when an odd shuffling sound caught her attention from the right. Curious, she stood in the middle of the tunnel and crossed her arms, waiting for the shuffling sound to become a shuffling creature.

It was a huge shape that filled the entire tunnel. A giant circle that wiggled slowly toward her. Gradually, she was able to see that there was a smaller tube projecting out in front of the enormous tube. It didn't have any eyes, or a nose, but it did have a mouth. When it reached Sarah, it opened its mouth and stuck out its tongue, hissing like a snake. Then it licked its lips and roared a terrifying, ground-shaking roar that revealed its mouth to be bigger than its head and its teeth to be the longest and sharpest that Sarah had ever seen.

She turned and ran, listening to the thing shuffle behind her. Sarah glanced over her shoulder only to see that it could move just as fast as she could, and was actually gaining ground on her. _Oh no! I'm going to die here! No! No, that's not an option! I have to get home, to see Toby again, and I have to get out of this tunnel so I can see my friends before I go. I haven't even found Hoggle yet._ She glanced at the walls as she ran, but didn't see any ladders, not that they would help her unless she could climb faster than she could run.

_I could make a wish_, she thought to herself, _but didn't Jareth say something about this being my second wish already? What if I only get three? I might need the last one to get me home. I can't just waste it here._ The creature behind her roared again, and Sarah stumbled, almost falling. She felt the teeth nipping at her back and careered forward.

"HELP!" She yelled into the darkness, staring wide-eyed at the dead-end before her, realizing that there was one person she could think of that had the power to help her. "HELP ME! JARETH, HELP ME!"

Someone grunted behind her and a pair of strong hands shoved her forward. Sarah stumbled to the ground, losing the crystal from up her sleeve, and turned around to see Jareth standing above her. His face was like stone. The creature behind him did not move, and Sarah noticed on the floor a few drops of blue liquid. Jareth reached behind him and wrenched the giant worm's jaws out of his back. Then he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and the wall behind Sarah suddenly slid down into the floor, only to slide right back up again, severing the head of the monster from the rest of its body.

Jareth sank to his knees, staring at the floor. Sarah felt too weak to stand, so she crawled to him instead. "Are you alright?" She twisted her neck so that she could look up into those blue and brown eyes. They seemed slightly less guarded than they had before, as if whatever walls he'd put up behind them were cracking and breaking down.

"I heal quickly." He told her gruffly.

Sarah glared at him, then stood and went around to look at his back. The back of her hand flew to her lips as she sucked in a gasp. The teeth of the creature had left long gashes through his leather vest and white shirt, revealing long lines of blue blood along his back. He started to stand up, and promptly toppled over to one side. Sarah caught him and helped him get back to the floor in a comfortable sitting position.

"You should rest a minute." Sarah told him quietly, looking into his eyes again.

He only stared back at her, not a feature in his face moving. Still, in his eyes, Sarah could almost see the longing. "Your time is running out," he told her, "I've opened the tunnel for you, and there's a ladder right over there." He pointed, but Sarah didn't look away from him. "What?" He smirked proudly, "Don't you trust me?"

"No," Sarah answered quickly, "it's not that. I just, I want to ask you something."

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "And what would you like to ask me?"

"Why do you keep saving me?" The words blurted out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"Because you asked me to." He answered her simply, "well, actually, you demanded, but I suppose it's all the same to you." His mismatched eyes still held hers, the walls behind them breaking further.

"But I only called to you this time. Before –"

"Before," The Goblin King interrupted her, "you asked for 'someone', and 'someone' saved you. So there you have it. Now are you going to continue your quest, or not?"

"I..." Sarah glanced uneasily at the tunnel ahead of her and clearly saw the ladder leading up into the moonlight, "but I saw the crystal," she turned back to the Goblin King, who evidently didn't have the strength to vanish as he usually did. "I saw your mother, and how you fell into the oubliette. It's not fair, Jareth, what's happened to you."

Then the stone of his face broke, and Sarah saw the beginnings of a smile touch his lips. "You're the first to think so." His hand reached up and traced the outline of her jaw bone. "Thank you."

Sarah felt a wave of heat ripple through her body. She caught his hand before the fingers could reach her chin and clutched it in her own hand, staring down at the black leather glove. "Why didn't you leave?"

Jareth snorted and waved his other hand in the air, "and go back to what? Being a monster among gods? I'd rather be a god among monsters."

"But if you left now," she insisted, "you could come back to the world as it is, get a job, fall in love, have a family. People don't care about odd eye colors anymore. Some people even think it's beautiful!"

The Goblin King stared at the young woman in front of him, and gently squeezed her hand. "No, Sarah. This is where I belong, and this is where I will stay. There's nothing for me there. No one would know me."

"Are you afraid?" Sarah asked playfully, smiling.

"No!" He barked, his face hardening into a frown. _But not like stone_, Sarah thought to herself, _just a normal, emotional frown._ "I fear nothing." He turned away from her.

"Then why not try it? You could come back with me."

"You don't know what you're asking of me." He said bitterly, staring at the wall, "I brought life to this world. The animals couldn't speak, or even think, before I discovered my power. When I learned magic, the labyrinth learned magic. If I leave, the magic will leave with me. You wouldn't ask me to take away everything that makes your friends what they are, would you?"

Sarah bit her lip for a second. "No," she finally conceded, pouting, "I wouldn't."

"Then I will remain."

She tilted her head and looked at him as if for the first time. "There's that goodness in you again."

Jareth swallowed.

"Look at me." It wasn't a demand, but it wasn't a question, either. She said it gently, but with force, and Jareth looked at her. When she saw his eyes again, she felt all her words leave her in a rush.

"You'll never make your deadline if you stay here talking with me," the Goblin King informed her. "If you want to go home, you had better go on."

"But what about you?" She leaned around him to get a look at the gashes on his back, only to find that they were well on the mend already.

"I heal quickly." He promised her. "Go, Sarah. You don't need to stay by my side."

_But I want to_, Sarah thought, surprising herself. How could she possibly want to stay anywhere near this man who had tormented her? And saved her life. Twice. She stood slowly, and spotted the crystal in a corner, where it had rolled after falling out of her sleeve. Sarah bent down and snatched it up, rubbed it carefully on her her sleeve, and then handed it to Jareth.

"Here. You probably want to have this back."

Then she turned and left the Goblin King to himself.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Quest Complete**

The ladder brought her up in the dead end of a corridor. She looked up at the stars, as if she could mark the time by their position. "I should have asked him how much time was left," she mumbled as she began to trot forward, into the long corridor ahead of her. "It looks like it doesn't end!" She gasped in wonder.

The sky was turning gray, and Sarah was sure she was nearly out of time. How long had she been in the oubliette? How much time had she lost in the berry patch? Then she realized the walls were made of brick, not the yellow stones of the other part of the labyrinth.

"Wait a minute," she stopped walking and stared at the faded bricks and brown ivy on either side of her, "I remember this. You can't see the opening because of how the ivy hangs, but it's there all the same."

She stuck her hands out in front of her and tried to walk through the wall. It didn't work. She tried to walk through the wall on the other side. It didn't work. She continued on like that, while the sun rose. A mist folded around her, but she continued, walking into wall after wall, trusting that there would have to be an opening somewhere, eventually.

The mist thickened so that Sarah couldn't see more than three feet in front of her, and soon she found herself yawning dreadfully. Her arms drooped, and her eyelids felt heavy, but she pressed on as best she could, until she tripped over a large obstruction.

Getting up was painful, and she found that she wanted nothing more than to curl up and go to sleep right there, until she recognized the lump she'd tripped over. "Hoggle!"

Hoggle grumbled in his sleep.

"HOGGLE!" Sarah shook him violently.

"Wh-what! Oh! Sarah! Be careful, this is the mists of sleep. Don't let it get to you. Don't...fall..asle...zzz"

Sarah blinked slowly with heavy eyelids. "No." She shook her head. "I won't fall asleep." She lifted Hoggle onto her back and carried him as if he were Toby and she were giving him a piggy-back ride. "Come on, Hoggle, let's find our way out of here."

* * *

Jareth paced his throne room, wearing fresh clothes – a burgundy shirt, open at the throat, and black pants with his black boots. He held a crystal in his naked hand. "You can do it, Sarah. I know your will is strong enough." He glanced at the thirteen-hour clock. "You've only got ten minutes left, but you're so close. And technically, you have found all your friends, but I can't come to you until you've proven the strength of your will. Go on, Sarah. You'll find the exit. You're almost there."

The goblins huddled in the doorway, clutching the walls on either side. Their king was not acting like himself. There was a lightness in his steps, and a sparkle in his eyes that many of the goblins had never seen before. Only the oldest ones remembered that he used to be like that as a small child.

* * *

Sarah was about to give up and sleep. She convinced herself that if she just leaned against the wall and shut her eyes for a moment, she'd be able to keep going. However, instead of leaning against a wall, she felt herself hit the ground. Something bit her on the nose.

"Ow!" She opened her eyes and found that she was looking into the face of a fairy. "What?" she sat up and rubbed the arm she'd fallen on. "Hoggle! Wake up! We're here! We made it! Hoggle!" She turned and shook him until he yelled.

"Sarah! What are you doing here?" He embraced her in a tight hug, and Sarah hugged him back.

"Oh, Hoggle, I've had the most amazing adventure!" And she launched into an explanation of how she'd come to be there, starting with cleaning her room and making the wish. She even told him how Jareth had saved her, and about her conversation with him in the tunnel. "I just don't understand him," she said, resting her chin in her hands, and her elbows on her knees as they sat on the ground. "He goes around granting all these horrible wishes about stealing babies away, and then all of a sudden he goes out of his way to save someone's life. Which is apparently not something he's used to doing. I don't get it."

"Do you remember what the prophesy said?" Hoggle asked quietly.

"Um," Sarah furrowed her brow in thought, "something about the king ruling his maze until a girl catches his gaze, and then the walls crumbled down and the he's nice to everyone, I think."

Hoggle took a deep breath, "The Goblin King will rule his maze, until a girl does seize his gaze, then the walls will crumble and fall, and Goblin King be kind to all."

"Why did you ask me, if you already knew it?"

"I just wondered if you knew it, that's all." Hoggle got up and wandered over to a small hut by the pond in front of the opening to the labyrinth.

"Do you know what it means?" Sarah asked him, standing up and dusting herself off. "If you know what it means, please tell me! I've been trying to figure it out, but nothing makes sense! How can anyone seize anyone's gaze? And how can he be nice to everyone if the entire labyrinth is destroyed and there isn't anyone left?"

Hoggle came out of the hut with his fairy spray. "It's a riddle, Sarah. Riddles ain't s'posed to be obvious."

"Then what does it mean?" She demanded angrily.

Hoggle sprayed a fairy and grunted at it when it fell to the ground. "One," he counted to himself.

"My lady!" Sir Didymus shouted as he and Ambrosius bounded around the corner of the labyrinth. "We've found thee at last!"

"Sawah!" Ludo lumbered behind Sir Didymus.

"Sir Didymus! Ludo! You made it!" Sarah hugged each of them. "Oh, it's so good to be with all of you again."

"Then no one can argue that your wish wasn't fulfilled." The Goblin King announced his arrival, standing on top of the hut. "Come, Sarah. Your thirteen hours are up."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: The Third Wish**

_He's trying to make his face like stone again,_ Sarah thought as she stepped toward him, _but he can't quite manage it. He looks so sad. And hopeful at the same time, somehow. And his eyes, they've got such a sparkle in them._ Her heart fluttered and warmth filled her stomach as it tied in knots.

Jareth held out his hand, holding a crystal, and tossed it up into the sky. Sarah didn't watch the crystal, or reach out for it. Instead she held his eyes. She blinked, and they were standing in his deserted throne room. Sarah looked all around her, but saw no sign of her room or any part of her house.

"Where are we?"

"You know where we are." The Goblin King answered briskly, standing very close to her.

"But what happened to sending me home?" Sarah looked up into his blue and brown eyes again. _He is handsome_, she thought, _terribly, terribly handsome._

"I never promised anything about that. You wished to come here and see your friends, and so you have. I gave you a thirteen-hour deadline and you made it. Barely, but you did. You've won again, Sarah, and I congratulate you."

"Well, thank you." She answered, crossing her arms over her chest, "But I'd like to go home."

"Would you?" Jareth's voice was quiet and urgent, "when I spoke with you in your room, you said you'd like to stay in the labyrinth. Is that still what you want?"

Sarah squinted at him. "You did that on purpose, didn't you? You were trying to enchant me. And with the berry patch. You manipulated that somehow, because you wanted me to lose time and get stuck here forever. And then you saved my life. I don't understand, Jareth. Do you want to do me harm, or not?"

"No, Sarah." He whispered, "I've never wanted to do you any harm."

"Then what do you want from me, Jareth?"

"What do I want?" The Goblin King smiled. "I want something impossible." The smile faded. "I want you to stay."

Sarah blinked slowly, trying to clear her head enough for this to make sense. "I don't understand." It didn't help that her stomach was doing somersaults and complicated gymnastic flips in her gut.

"When you first wished me to take your baby brother, I was amused by you, Sarah. You were young and impetuous, like so many others before you. When you demanded I give back the baby before you'd even tried to beat the labyrinth, I'd been excited by your spirit. I do have to admit, I was annoyed when it became clear you were going to beat the labyrinth after all, but when you arrived at the castle I was hopeful. When you took back your brother, I was more relieved than anything else. You see, I've never been able to exist in my own right. I've only ever been an attachment to someone else's adventure, or part of someone else's dream. But, when you realized I had no power over you, you gave me what I craved most – myself. I had no power over you, because I was no part of you, and you allowed me to exist as a separate being, apart from your own dream and your own adventure. I wanted to thank you for that."

"I don't see where this is going." Sarah squeezed her hands into fists, willing her body to stop acting so strangely with these odd heat flashes and stomach flips. If she could just think clearly, she'd be able to understand what he was saying without him having to spell it out word by word.

"When we danced – you do remember, don't you?" He waited for Sarah to nod. "I knew that you were enchanted by my spell, but somehow, I couldn't stop looking at you. You seized me then, Sarah, and I haven't stopped thinking of you since. I've waited and waited, until you finally wished for the labyrinth again." He was speaking more and more quickly as he went on, and Sarah was beginning to feel dizzy. "I didn't want to let you leave this time, until I had a chance to talk with you."

"Well, I'm here." Sarah shrugged. "What did you want to talk abut?"

"Us."

Sarah raised her eyebrows, fighting dizziness. "Us?" Her voice came out in a squeak. "What makes you think there's an 'us'?"

"Come now, I know you've thought of me, too."

"Yes, but I don't think it's been in quite the same way as you've been thinking of me." Sarah shifted her weight uneasily, uncomfortably hot.

"Yes, but that's changed, now hasn't it? I can see it in your eyes. You don't see me the same as before. You're not afraid of me. You were kind to me."

Sarah touched her fingers to her temple and stared at her shoes, hoping she wouldn't faint. "Can't you just send me home now?"

"No." Jareth put his hands on her shoulders to steady her. "I know you know of the prophecy. I want to tell you that you've done it." He paused, and pressed his lips together for a second before he went on. "The walls have crumbled. I could feel it, inside my heart. And I also want to tell you," he paused, his eyes sparkling with water, "I am afraid. If you leave, and you take your power, your magic with you, I won't be able to stop the walls coming back." He released her then and turned away from her, touching his hands to his eyes.

Sarah sank to the floor and held her head between her knees. _What am I going to do? Toby, and Dad, and my step-mother will worry and miss me, and I'll miss them. I can't just stay here forever! What is he thinking? What is he going to ask of me?_ "Jareth, I can't-"

"Wait." He turned to her again, and knelt before her on the floor, beseeching her with his eyes, "If you could visit the mortal world, would you stay? If, once a year, you could spend a week or two with your family, would that be enough to keep you here?"

Sarah considered this. "What about college?"

Jareth waved a hand in the air dismissively. "What do you need a degree for down here? Experience has taught me more than any professor ever could. Please, Sarah," she took her hands in his and kissed the knuckles of each hand. "I need you."

Sarah closed her eyes and took a deep breath, doing her best to ignore the fires inspired by his kisses. "What about the prophecy?" She asked in a shaky whisper. "Won't the labyrinth be destroyed?"

"No, that's what I've been trying to tell you." Jareth smiled at her as if she were just a silly child. "The walls in the prophecy were the walls around my heart. I haven't felt so alive in so long, Sarah. Please."

She dared to open her eyes, and felt her insides melt when she saw his tear-streaked face. "Oh, Jareth. Don't cry." She took her hands from his and wiped his face dry. Then she rested her palms on the sides of his jawbone. "I wish I could live here forever, and age the same way you do, and spend all my life with you."

The Goblin King smiled warmly for the first time in his long, long life. "Your wish is granted." He leaned forward, clutching the back of her neck in one hand, gripping her shoulder with the other.


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's Note: Chapter Eight was the original ending of the story. Then I had an inspiration based on someone's comment that Sarah probably wouldn't have stayed (hats off to Ghibligirl91__) and I decided to change it. So here's the extended version. Hope you like it!_

***************************************************************************************

**Chapter Nine: Arguments**

"Gak!" Sarah pulled away and leaned back on her hands when he released his hold on her. "What are you doing?"

"Kissing you." Jareth's eyebrows pulled together in an unfamiliar feeling. "Wasn't that what you wanted?" _Oh,_ Jareth thought to himself, _this is confusion. I remember._

"No!" Sarah exclaimed, pulling herself away from him. "No, I just want to go home!"

Jareth blinked. "But you wished you could stay here."

"Yes, I – I wished I _could_ because I know I _can't._"

"But I granted your wish. You'll stay here, and age as I do, and live here for the rest of your life. Just like you wished." Jareth watched her face carefully as it contorted through three or four different emotions in about one or two seconds.

"No!" Sarah wailed, "oh, no! What have I done?" She burried her face in her hands and began to weep. "No! I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it!"

The Goblin King rose to his feet and remembered what it felt like to be hurt. "It seems there's a lot you say that you don't mean."

"Oh, don't be like that!" Sarah looked up at him with her tear-streaked face. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it. But I just can't stay here!"

Jareth's heart flinched at the sight of her tortured expression. "Why not?"

"Because I have a family, and a life, that I haven't even started to live! I," Sarah cast her gaze around the room, looking for inspiration, "I could have gone to college, met someone, fallen in love, had a family." She turned back to Jareth, and he saw such a depth of emotion it was almost too much for him.

"Did you think you wouldn't fall in love here?" The Goblin King retorted. "That you couldn't have a family here?"

Sarah stared at him, trying to put the pieces together.

"Oh, you dense, dense woman." Jareth growled, then he shouted, "will you not dry your face?"

Sarah hurriedly wiped her eyes, but as soon as her cheeks her dry, new tears came to wet them.

The Goblin King watched the woman unsuccessfully try to stop crying. "Oh, you're impossible."

"I'm impossible?" Sarah stood up then, giving up on trying to keep her face dry. "You're the one who's been manipulating me from the start! That's all you ever do! You just manipulate people and take advantage of them! You don't know how love anyone properly."

"I," the room darkened and Jareth's form seemed suddenly taller and more menacing than Sarah had ever remembered it, "am the Goblin King. No one speaks to me that way."

_I'm not going to be afraid of him!_ Sarah fiercely told herself. Her hand lashed out of its own accord and slapped Jareth across the cheek. "You stop. Stop being manipulative. Stop using fear to make people do what you want them to do, and just grow up!"

"No one," The Goblin King's voice was low, saturated with power, "touches the Goblin King."

Pure terror washed down Sarah's back, and for an instant she thought he would kill her. Then the room around her shifted, and she found herself standing in her own bedroom.

***

"Damn it!" Jareth cursed under his breath after he'd taken a few deep breaths. "It wasn't supposed to go like that. You were supposed to just wish to stay and mean it. I don't understand you, Sarah! One minute you're clutching my face, begging me not to cry, and the next you're tearing my heart out, dashing it to the ground, and stomping on it. Viciously." He touched his fingers to the cheek that had been slapped. The red mark had already faded, but the accusation still rang in his ears. "Manipulative, indeed. I don't manipulate anything. I grant wishes. If people didn't want things to happen, they shouldn't wish for them to happen. It's not my fault."

He paced back and forth in front of his throne a few times, taking deep breaths, trying to think of what he could do to appease the strange woman.

***

There was her bed, with the same familiar spread on it, and her vanity table, and her shelves of dolls and books, but there were no boxes. Hadn't she just been packing when Jareth had whisked her away? She looked carefully at the space of wall where her door used to be. Then she walked over to it and shoved it and felt all along it with her hands.

"Damn you, Jareth." Sarah whispered under her breath.

"Don't you like it?" The Goblin King was lounging at her vanity table.

"You!" Sarah could feel hot rage bubbling in her veins.

"I thought you might be more comfortable in a room you were familiar with." Jareth watched her trembling near the wall. "Are you afraid of me?"

"No." She said through tightly clenched teeth. "I'm furious at you." Her voice was low and her eyes blazed.

"Well, I supposed I had to start somewhere." Jareth very calmly mused.

"You're. Not. Helping." Sarah was using all of her will power just to keep her feet planted where they were.

"No? What if I gave you this?" He produced a crystal from within a long, baggy sleeve. "It's the one you found in the oubliette. You can use it to see whatever, or whomever you wish." He placed it carefully on the vanity table between a brush and a book so that it wouldn't roll away. "Does that seem helpful to you?"

"No." Sarah answered sharply. "It seems mean. I can see my family, but I won't be able to talk to them. It's cruel!"

The Goblin King shrugged and picked up the crystal. "Well, if you don't want it-"

"No!" She marched forward and snatched the clear bauble from his hand. "I didn't say that."

Jareth leaned the side of his face on one hand. "Will you ever just say what you mean, or mean what you say?"

Sarah glared at him. "Why do you even care what I mean? All you do is wait until I say something you can manipulate to your own advantage. You don't care about what I want. You only care about yourself."

The Goblin King stood, fists clenched, "Well it's not like I asked to fall in love with you! I didn't ask you to be the one to beat my labyrinth! If I had my choice I would picked someone more docile!"

"No docile person would have beaten your labyrinth in first place!" Sarah yelled. "They would have taken one look you and spent the rest of their lives cowering in fear! You never would have gotten anyone but someone like me! You shouldn't be so selfish!"

"Selfish!" The Goblin King retorted, yelling just as loudly as Sarah, "I'm not the one wanting to home all the time!"

"That's where I belong!" Sarah shouted in exasperation. "I don't belong here! There's nothing for me here! And don't even think about telling you're here for me! You don't count."

Jareth took a step back and inhaled a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. "I can't send you back, Sarah." His blue and brown eyes looked down at her in something that might have been sympathy. "Wishes are binding. Requests, even demands, I can only grant those without breaking the wish."

"Then I wish to go home, right now!" Sarah crossed her arms and stamped her foot.

"I can't." Jareth smiled sadly at her. "I'm only allowed three wishes a person. I'm afraid you've already made your third wish."

Sarah's mouth gaped open for a few seconds, before she was able to find her voice again. "You horrible monster. Get out." She fought the tears in her throat and in her eyes. "Get out!" She shoved at him. "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

"As you wish," the Goblin King murmured as he faded into thin air.

"No!" Sarah screamed at the vanity table. "Not as I wish, because I'm all out of wishes, aren't I?" With a wordless shout, she threw the crystal at the table and shattered the glass mirror. "I hate you, Jareth!" She threw herself onto her bed, sobbing into her pillow. "I hate you!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten: Apologies**

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Hoggle bowed awkwardly in the throne room, ignoring the myriad goblins around him.

"Yes," Jareth cursed himself for still not remembering the stupid creature's name. "You're a friend of Sarah, aren't you?"

"Well," Hoggle, hesitated, his knees clattering, "that depends..."

The Goblin King rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to harm you, Hogless."

"Er, it's Hoggle, sir." Hoggle cowered, waiting to be struck.

One of the goblins picked up a chicken and tossed it onto Hoggle's head. There was a brief struggle, in which the chicken dropped an egg on a goblin's head, and the rest of the goblins burst into uproarious laughter.

"Shut up!" Jareth commanded the room. "Now, Hoggle," he was careful to pronounce the name correctly in the silent room. "I'm trying very hard to be accommodating for Sarah, but nothing I do seems to work. She doesn't say what means, and she doesn't mean what she says, and I can't figure out what she wants."

"Well," Hoggle thought carefully about his good friend. "Maybe she don't know what she wants?"

"Oh, no," Jareth informed him bitterly, "she's very clear on that. She wants to go home, and she's not satisfied with just seeing her family and not being able to talk to them, but she'd rather have that than nothing, and she still wants to go home." The Goblin King sighed heavily, "but she wished to stay here! If she'd really wanted to go home, wouldn't she have wished to go?"

"Er," Hoggle tried to explain his idea carefully, "maybe she was sure you'd send her home."

"Oh, I know she assumed I would, but why wish for something she didn't want? That's what I've never understood about humans." Jareth added thoughtfully, "They wish for me to take their babies away, and then as soon as I've whisked the child off, they want it back. I mean, if you don't want something, don't wish for it. It's a very simple concept."

"Maybe," Hoggle offered meekly, "if you tried to be nice to her..."

"I am being nice!" Jareth protested. "I've given her a room that's identical to her own, and a crystal so she can see her family. How much nicer do I have to be?"

"Maybe," Hoggle leaned backward and forward on his feet, "if you asked her..."

"I have asked her what she wants and she only wants to go home." Jareth tapped his cane against the arm of his throne irritably.

"What if you asked her what else she wants?" Hoggle suggested, prepared to cringe at any moment.

The Goblin King glared at him and took a deep breath. "If she would let me speak long enough without enraging me, I might have asked her that by now."

Hoggle shrugged. "Patience, sir?"

The Goblin King's glare intensified. "Wait here, Hoggle." Then he was gone, and Hoggle stared nervously at the mischievous goblins around him.

***

Sarah was watching her baby brother sleeping in the crystal when Jareth appeared, wearing a deep blue frilly shirt buttoned up to his chin and white pants with his black boots. She wiped her eyes quickly as soon as he had arrived.

"Did you sleep well?" Jareth asked awkwardly, avoiding her gray eyes.

Sarah sniffled. "Well enough," she told him quietly, staring at her rumpled blanket.

"I came to ask you," the Goblin King tapped his long black cane against the floor, "if there was anything you wanted." He still refused to look at her.

"Well, I still want to go home," Sarah answered immediately, watching him close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose.

Jareth took a deep breath. "Besides that. Is there anything else you want?"

Sarah glared at him. "I don't want anything else from you!"

"Will you never be grateful?" Jareth spun on her and she felt the full force of his spite. "I even went to the trouble of copying your room down the last detail! What does it take to please you?"

"Well, it's not my room, to start with!" Sarah griped.

"Yes it is! I copied everything!" The Goblin King waved his cane at the room in general, "From the cracks in the ceiling down the fibers in the carpet!"

"Exactly!" She shouted, "You copied! It's not mine! It's just a...a...a copy!"

Jareth sighed and cast his eyes around the perfectly copied room. "Then what would you rather have? And don't," he held a finger up at her, "ask for your _real_ room."

Sarah buttoned her lip for a moment.

Jareth waited.

"Well, I'm in a castle, aren't I?" Sarah finally spoke, "what about a proper castle bedroom?"

"Is that what you want?" Jareth asked skeptically, "or do you not mean that?"

Sarah glared at him. "I really mean that, Jareth. I want a proper castle bedroom."

The Goblin King continued to glare at her while the room around them shifted. It grew bigger, and her bed became an enormous four-poster feather bed with translucent yellow curtains. Her closet became a huge wardrobe, and her vanity table morphed from a modern design into something from the fourteenth century, as did each of her knick knacks. The books and dolls vanished, the shelves disappearing altogether. In their place, appeared a fireplace with a pair of yellow-cushioned chairs in front of it. Her window became a full walk-out balcony with deep golden-yellow curtains.

Sarah stared all around her at the now-unfamiliar room. She felt tears welling behind her eyes. "Oh, this isn't what I want," she muttered miserably.

Jareth considered strangling her with his own hands. "Sarah, this is tiring me. Which do you want? This room, or the other one?"

"I don't know!" Sarah whined. "I want both!"

"Very well, then!" Jareth glared at her while the room changed again.

Her bed was still a four-poster with yellow curtains, but it was the same size as her old one and covered with her old bedspread. The wardrobe wiggled where it was, and the doors fell open to reveal all of Sarah's old clothes hanging neatly inside it. The vanity table took on the same colors as her old one, though the style remained of the fourteenth century. Her books and dolls appeared on the mantle above the fireplace, and the curtains in front of the balcony transformed into larger, longer versions of the old curtains in her old room.

Sarah got up off her bed and walked around the room, poking at this and that. She started to make little choking sounds.

"Are you crying?" Jareth asked slowly, very close to sheer bewilderment.

"No!" Sarah turned then and he saw the brightness in her face, "I'm laughing."

"What are you laughing at?" The Goblin King inquired, carefully watching his own temperament.

"This room!" Sarah held her arms out dramatically and spun in a circle. "It's so ridiculous! I mean, look! That's my bedspread on a fourposter bed with a yellow canopy!" She laughed aloud then.

Jareth's heart leaped in his chest at the sound of her joy. His pride fell against the tide of her ridicule. "If you want something else..."

"No!" Sarah turned and skipped over to him, suddenly light with happiness. "I like it. Thank you, Jareth. It's exactly what I wanted."

"Ah," Jareth breathed a sigh of relief, "then you _can_ be pleased."

Sarah felt her face burning with heat and she turned away from him, twisting the edge of her shirt in her fingertips. "I'm sorry, I'm being so difficult. It's just..." she walked toward the balcony as she spoke, "I want things you can't give me."

"You'll be able to go home in a year," the Goblin King reminded her tiredly.

"To visit." Sarah added resentfully. "I want to go back to my family and my life permanently," she wrapped her hands in one of the white lace curtains, leaning on it gently, "but apparently, that's not possible, and it's never going to happen." She turned back to look at him then, proud of herself for not breaking down into tears for once. "There'll always be a part of me that's sad, and that misses my family. You'll never make me entirely happy."

Jareth shrugged. "I don't think anyone is ever entirely happy. I should know. I've granted enough wishes."

Sarah sighed. "And you? You've never been entirely happy?"

The Goblin King took a step back, leaning on his cane. "Well, I, maybe, once, when I was little." He thought about it more carefully. "No. Actually, I've never been happy."

She tilted her head to the side, a breeze drifting in through the balcony lifted her hair gently. "You've never even been the littlest bit happy?"

Jareth shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, "I've known joy, and brief moments of pleasure. But I've never been happy."

"How sad," Sarah whispered, thinking to herself, _no wonder he's so mean all the time._

"You try being raised by goblins. See how you turn out."

Sarah giggled. Jareth's mouth stretched into a very small smile.

Then Sarah's stomach growled.

"Oh! I've been so remiss!" Jareth exclaimed. "Please, Sarah, forgive me, I haven't fed you at all, have I? Would you like something to eat?"

_As if I were a pet!_ Sarah kept the thought to herself, and aloud she said instead, "Yes, Jareth. I would like something to eat."

"Then, allow me to attempt to please you once again." He gave her a short, stiff bow, and the room around them shifted until they were standing in an enormous dining hall, near the head of a long table.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven: Pleasant Company**

Jareth walked to the right of the head of the table and pulled out a chair. Sarah was too busy staring up at the elaborate gold chandelier to notice. He coughed gently and waited expectantly. Sarah looked at him for a second, and then realized what he was doing.

"Oh!" She went and sat, allowing him to push the chair in. "Thank you."

Jareth grunted in response as he seated himself.

In front of her was an ornate silver plate, buffed to the point of being a mirror, along with an equally ornate set of silver ware and an equally reflective silver goblet.

"Just think of what you want to eat, and it will appear." The Goblin King explained, leaning back in his chair, resting his far elbow on the arm and setting his chin in his thoughtful fingers.

"What about you?" Sarah asked, eying the empty table in front of him.

"I've already eaten," he answered softly.

"Ah." Sarah chose not to remark on that and turned back to her own empty plate. She closed her eyes and visualized a stack of six buttermilk pancakes, drenched in syrup and plastered with butter. When she opened her eyes, her stomach roared with delight. "Oh, wow!" She whispered.

"Does it please you?" Jareth asked with a grin on his face.

"Yes, Jareth!" She looked up at him then with an enormous smile. "It's better than I imagined it!"

"Very well, then," the Goblin King sat up straighter, "eat. Enjoy." He watched her inhale her pancakes.

When Sarah reached for her goblet, it had already filled with fresh, cool milk, and she was delighted to feel it running down her throat. After she'd finished the pancakes, she concentrated on the goblet and found it filled with cool, clear water.

Sarah smiled comfortably, sitting back with her goblet of water between her fingers, sipping at it. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Jareth staring at her with an odd little grin on his lips. Suddenly her fingers slipped and the goblet clattered to the floor, drenching the front of her shirt and jeans along the way.

"Oh no!" Sarah yelped and stood up. "I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me! I'm not usually that clumsy."

"It's alright, Sarah." Jareth had stood as soon as she had left her chair. "The goblins will clean it. But you might want to change into something dryer."

Sarah looked up at his blue and brown eyes, her heart fluttering in her chest. "Um, yes." She swallowed a lump down her dry throat. "I suppose I should change."

"Why don't you go to your room and see what's in your wardrobe?" The Goblin King suggested a little hesitantly.

"Okay, but how do I get to my room?" She was trying to get her fluttering heart under control.

Jareth blinked. "Haven't you figured it out yet?"

"Figured what out?" Sarah asked, feeling a trace of anger touch the back of her mind.

"You have power here, Sarah. You've beaten the labyrinth and the castle and the goblin city. It's all at your beck and call. You've only got to visualize where you want to be, and then you'll be there."

"Really." Sarah resisted the urge to yell at him for not telling her this sooner, and instead picked up on another train of thought that had been running through her mind. "Then I'm not a prisoner?"

"No! Of course not, Sarah!" the Goblin King exclaimed, horrified. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Well, there's no door to my room." Sarah explained in wonder. "You really didn't notice?"

"Pf. Doors!" The Goblin King waved a nervous hand in the air. "I haven't used a door in years!"

"You haven't..." Sarah was unable to stifle her laughter. "You haven't – hahaha – used a door!" Her voice rang out like dancing bells echoing in the enormous room.

Part of Jareth rejoiced that she seemed so happy, but, as before, another part of him cringed in the shadow of the knowledge that she was laughing _at him_. Did no one else in the entire labyrinth strike her as funny?

"I'm sorry." Sarah finally regain control of herself and cleared her throat. "I'll just go change, then, and, um, should I meet you back here, or where?"

"I'll just, add a door to your room, and knock." Jareth refused to meet her eyes.

On impulse, Sarah stood on her toes and pecked him on the cheek. "Thank you Jareth." Then she closed her eyes and faded into thin air.

The Goblin King fought with his emotions for a few seconds. Then he smiled as the room shifted so that he was standing in the middle of his throne room.

"Hoggle! It worked! I just had to be patient! And kind! I can't believe it worked! She kissed me! You should have been there! She – she really kissed me! Hoggle, are you paying attention to me?" That was when he really looked at the scene before him.

The throne room goblins had tied and gagged Hoggle and were trying to convince the chicken to roost on his head. Jareth rolled his eyes.

"Alright, that's enough! All of you! Untie him, and for goodness' sake, get that stupid bird out of my throne room!" He sank into his throne and muttered, "Ugh, goblins!"

"Sorry, your majesty. I was just trying-"

"I don't care what you were trying." Jareth cut off Hoggle's groveling. "Did you hear what I was saying?"

"Er, yes, your majesty. Congratulations! I'm glad it worked. Er-" Hoggle stopped himself from going on.

"Yes, Hoggle?" Jareth tapped the arm of his throne. "What else were you going to say?"

"I had hoped, your majesty, that I might be able to maybe see Sarah?" Hoggle dared to look up at the face of the Goblin King.

Jareth pursed his lips. "When she asks for you," he decided, "then you may see her. Until that time, off with you."

"Er, yes your majesty." Hoggle left with his head down, grumbling all the way out of the castle.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve: The Goblin Queen**

The only dress in Sarah's wardrobe had been a long, close-fitting pale green dress with long sleeves and a wide neck. The skirt looked like it would flow around her ankles. On the floor of the wardrobe, she'd seen a pair of dark green fabric ballet flats, and on the vanity table, she'd found a dark green sash.

A firm knock resounded from the newly installed wooden door. "Sarah?" Jareth's muffled voice came from beyond.

"You're being manipulative again!" Sarah called over her shoulder, holding up the dress by the shoulders to get a good look at it.

"I thought you'd like the dress!" Jareth called back through the door.

"Well I want my old clothes back!" Sarah answered with a pout.

"Very well." Jareth huffed.

The wardrobe closed its doors for a second, and then opened them again. Sarah smiled to find all her old things in there.

A moment later, she opened the door and smiled up at the Goblin King.

"I thought you didn't like the dress." Jareth looked down at her with the confused expression he was getting used to feeling on his face.

"I never said I didn't like it." Sarah answered. "I just didn't want it to be my only choice."

"Alright," Jareth tried to smile, "I'm glad you chose to wear this dress. It fits you well."

Sarah grinned at the compliment. "Thank you. So where are we going?"

"I thought you might like to see the garden." The Goblin King answered.

"That does sound nice." Then Sarah added quickly, "but could we walk? My legs feel stiff, and I haven't really walked since you first put me in my room."

"Very well," Jareth turned and offered her his elbow. "We'll walk if that pleases you."

"It does." Sarah answered, wrapping her fingers around the crook of his elbow. "Thank you."

The Goblin King smiled at her and led the way down a corridor to a twisting stairwell. _She is so ravishingly beautiful_, he thought to himself, _if only she could love me._ Then they were down the stairs and through a door. When the door opened, Sarah forgot to breathe. Before her was an immense field of rolling hills, populated with neat rows of trees and flowers of every shape and size. Bees and hummingbirds darted to and fro. Squirrels and rabbits scampered through the grass, and none of the animals were afraid of them, or ran when they approached.

"Oh, Jareth!" Sarah exclaimed breathlessly, "it's beautiful!"

"Does it please you, Sarah?" His voice came quietly, right next to her ear.

With a gasp, she turned to find him much closer to her than he had been a moment ago. "Yes. It does," she admitted uncertainly.

"Good." He smiled gently. "Come, you said you wanted to walk."

He led her through the dirt path that wound throughout the entire garden, beyond patch upon patch of flowers.

"It's kind of like the labyrinth." Sarah remarked conversationally.

"Yes," Jareth responded, "I find I enjoy the way it twists."

"Mmm" Sarah glanced up and found him staring at her. She quickly turned away and focused on the flowers around her. "I don't recognize any of these plants."

"I don't think anyone's actually named them." The Goblin King confessed. "Once, when I was young, I decided to give myself a quest to collect some of each of the plants that grew in the labyrinth. Well, the ones that weren't deadly, anyway."

"There are deadly plants in the labyrinth?" Sarah threw a shocked expression at him.

"Why, yes." Jareth went on. "There's quite a lot of magnificent things in the labyrinth."

"I don't know if I would have called deadly plants magnificent." She shuddered at the thought.

"Well, in any case-"

"Sire!" A huffing, gruff voice called from behind them. "Your majesty! It's the goblins! In the city! They're all killing each other, sir!"

Jareth rolled his eyes and turned them both around to meet the goblin in armor that ran up to them, still trying to catch its breath. "Have you called out the guard?"

"Yes, sire!" The goblin puffed, "that's who the goblins are fighting!"

"The city goblins are fighting the guard?" The Goblin King relaxed a little. "Good. They'll lose and the guard can turn in early."

"No, sire! It's different this time! Goblins are dying, sire!"

"Well that's hardly my fault." The Goblin King tried to turn back to his walk.

"Jareth!" Sarah scolded, "you have to go take care of this!"

"Take care of what?" He dropped his arm so that they were no longer connected. "It's not up to me if they want to get themselves killed!"

"But they're your subjects!" Sarah protested. "You're their king! You're supposed to take care of them!"

"They're goblins!" Jareth threw his hands in the air helplessly.

"You're the Goblin King!" Sarah glared at him with all her might.

"Very well." The Goblin King grumbled and then they were standing in the center of a square in the middle of the city. "What would you have me do?"

Sarah looked around her at the mayhem. There were a few goblins lying unconscious in the streets, but not many. "Make them stop."

"And how, my dear woman, do you suggest I do that?"

Sarah stared up at his sarcastic expression. "Well, shout, or clap, or get their attention somehow. Let them know you're here."

Jareth pointed a finger at the sky and a bolt of lightning arched up into the blue heavens followed by a deafening roar of thunder. The fighting ceased entirely. All eyes fell on them. "Alright, I have their attention, Sarah. Now what?"

_He's making fun of me_, Sarah thought to herself. _He wants me to see how useless it is trying to rule over goblins, but I've seen them act like people before. They can't be so unreasonable._ "Ask them what's happened."

"It's clear what's happened, Sarah. There's been a fight."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Then ask them how it started."

The Goblin King took a deep breath and turned to the gathering crowd. "You there." He pointed at a goblin guard, dressed all in red armor, sitting on top of a small dragon. "How did all this start?"

"Well," said the guard, "there was this brawl in the market, sir, having to do wif some street urchins what stole a peach, sir."

"They wouldnna stole it if they'd had food to begin wif!" Shouted a maternal voice from somewhere in the crowd.

Shouts of agreement went up among the goblins and they very well would have burst into another fight if Sarah hadn't shouted, "Shut up! All of you!" then she turned back to Jareth. "You need to take better care of your people."

"They're not people." He protested. "They're goblins."

"Whatever they are," Sarah explained, "they're yours. You should take better care of them."

"Oh right!" Jareth yelled in disgust, "the same way they took care of me?"

"You proclaimed yourself Goblin King!" Sarah yelled back at him. "And if you ask me, you're doing a sorry job of it!" She took a stab at what she felt had become a running theme. "It would please me greatly if you would at least listen to their grievances."

"Grievances." Jareth couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You want me to listen to the grievances of a bunch of goblins."

"You. Are. Their. King." Sarah gave him a look she had been accustomed to giving Toby when he'd knocked over the same glass for the third time in a row. "Do it right."

Jareth had never loathed anyone the way he loathed Sarah just then, but he turned to the crowd of goblins and said in a relatively mild tone. "Can any of you read or write?"

There was an abundance of shuffling feet and eventually a small goblin with a feathered cap and a little mandolin was shoved forward. "Uh, I'm a minstrel, sir." He said in a shaky tenor voice, "I can read and write."

"Very well." Jareth shot one last pleading glance at Sarah's firm stance. "You will take a list of all the grievances of these goblins, and you will bring it to my throne room. I will read it and I will think about it." He turned his full attention on Sarah. "Does that please you?"

"It'll do for now." Sarah quipped.

The Goblin King huffed and rolled his eyes as he vanished.

"All hail the Goblin Queen!" Shouted the red-clad guard. "Hip-hip! Hooray! Hip-hip! Hooray!" The entire crowd took up the cheer and Sarah stepped down off the raised square Jareth had set them on and smiled at the goblins of the city.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen: Fairness**

"Look at her." Jareth grumbled, standing at a window in a tower above the throne room. "Making friends with those hideous little creatures." He glared at the chicken strutting along the window ledge. "She knows what they did to me. She knows they didn't raise me. They feared me. They still do. That's how I rule. If they fear me, they do what I say, and for the most part, they leave me alone. But when I fell into the oubliette, did any one of them even come looking for me?"

"I doubt they would have known where to look." Sarah was standing behind him.

"Don't make me regret telling you how to do that." Jareth continued glaring out the window.

"You should at least listen to them. If you were kind to them, they would be better subjects."

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah," Jareth turned around and face her with a tired, pained expression. "How can I explain this to you so that you'll understand? They're goblins. They'll never be good subjects because they're goblins."

"But wouldn't you rather they felt loyal to you? If instead of fearing you, they respected you, or if they felt that they owed you for taking care of them. Wouldn't that be better than just lording over a bunch of terrified little creatures? If you showed them kindness, maybe they'd act more human."

The Goblin King sighed and looked back to the window. "I can't show them something I haven't got."

"But you've been very kind to me." Sarah protested, not quite believing her own words.

"You really think so?" He turned back to her eagerly. "I've been trying."

Sarah couldn't help herself smiling. "And you've succeeded. You've been very patient with me, and you've tried very hard to just give me whatever I wanted. It's been very kind, really. So you are capable of kindness. Why is it so hard to be kind to the goblins?"

"They were never kind to me."

"Oh weren't they?" Sarah challenged him, walking closer to him. "Did they feed you, Jareth? Change your diaper? Did they play with you? They took care of you when you were little, didn't they?" The Goblin King didn't answer her, and she knew she was on the right track. "Until you grew into a boy bigger than they were and more adventurous, and they didn't know what to do with you. When you proclaimed yourself king, they probably were afraid at first because they'd never had a king before. And you kept on growing. How could they have known what to expect? They'd never seen a human baby before. You got yourself lost in that oubliette. I seriously doubt any of those city goblins have any concept of what an oubliette even is. You can't blame them for something you got yourself into."

When Jareth still didn't answer, she marched the last two steps up to him and placed her hand firmly on the side of his face to pull it around so she could look into his mismatched eyes. "I'm not saying it was fair. Life isn't fair. But you can't go on blaming them for something that wasn't their fault."

"No, Sarah," Jareth finally spoke, barely above a whisper, "life is terribly fair." He reach up to his cheek and wrapped his fingers around her hand, pressing it gently to his skin. "It's people who aren't fair. You can't look at life just based on yourself and your own actions. You have to take into account all the people around you. Every wish, every choice has its consequence, and those consequences affect dozens, hundreds, millions of people you may not even know exist. Life itself, I'm afraid, is ruthlessly fair. I did get myself into the oubliette, and I did get myself out, but I lost something while I was in there."

"The crystal?" Sarah asked, feeling oddly dizzy.

Jareth smiled gently. "I lost my hopes, my ambitions. I felt dead after I finally figured out how to leave the oubliette. And I've felt just as dead ever since." His free hand reached up to brush a wisp of hair out of Sarah's face. "Until I met you. Now I just feel confused. All the time. Trying to figure you out is more of a mystery than the labyrinth has ever been. I wonder if I'll never understand you."

"This isn't about me." Sarah pulled away from him and backed toward the spiral staircase that led down to the throne room. "You can be kind, Jareth, and it would make me very happy to see you be kind to your goblins." With that, she turned and left, dress sliding over the steps.

Jareth watched her go, and then went back to staring out the window.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen: Kindness and Hurting**

Sarah was staring her reflection in the vanity mirror. Her tears had already run dry. There was a warm breeze wafting in through her balcony window, pulling at the curtains. The crystal lay on the vanity table before her, between a music box and a container of make up.

A firm knock sounded on the door. "Sarah?"

She took a deep breath, but didn't bother turning around. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if you would join me for dinner."

Her stomach grumbled and Sarah sighed. "I suppose." She rose heavily and trudged to the door.

He was waiting for her in the same clothes he'd been wearing, dark blue shirt, white pants, black boots. He didn't offer her his elbow this time, but only led the way down the corridor and down the stairs, to the same door that had sent them into the garden before. This time, the dining hall was on the other side of it, and every chair was filled with a goblin, except the chair at the head of the table, and the chair directly to the right of it. Sarah's jaw dropped to see them all sitting there with silver plates and silver goblets just like the ones before her place and Jareth's place.

"Do you always dine with goblins?" She asked him, sure she'd missed something.

"Yes, of course." The Goblin King responded lightly, "starting now."

Sarah smiled and felt herself blush from the base of her neck to the tip of her forehead. She took her seat when Jareth held the chair for her and waited until he nodded before she filled her plate with a garden salad topped with italian dressing. All around her, the goblins filled their plates with various types of food Sarah would never have dreamed of eating. Some of the goblins had even chosen to dine on cooked rat. She tried not to pay attention to their plates, and instead focused on the crisp, fresh taste of her salad.

Jareth himself was eating a medium-well steak with a few sprigs of broccoli on the side. Sarah was a little surprised at how modern his meal seemed, considering how much time he'd spent in the labyrinth. She commented on this.

"Well, I've had the crystals." Jareth explaind. "I can look out and see whatever I want, whoever I want. There's only so long you can eat goblin food before you wonder what people are eating back on earth." He smirked and gave her a wink.

Sarah smiled and finished her salad. Then she had a small fillet of salmon with garlic seasoning, followed by a scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate fudge on top. After her meal was done, she sat back and sipped on cool water, as she had after breakfast, listening to the goblins laugh and joke with each other. They were mostly coarse jokes, and the goblins all had horrible raucous laughs, but she couldn't help smiling at them. They were an interesting bunch, and they seemed so human to her in so many ways. Real humans were daunting to them, sure, because they didn't know what to do with them, but the goblins themselves had many of the same habits. She found herself wondering if that was because they were trying to emulate Jareth, but after a quick glance at his sulking figure, she decided that goblins must just naturally be rather human on their own.

When her goblet was empty, Sarah didn't refill it, but sat forward and set it down on the table gently. "Jareth," she said quietly, getting barely a grunt from the Goblin King in response. "This was very kind of you, to have the goblins eat at your table. You don't have to do it all the time, but doing it for dinner was really nice. It makes me happy to see the goblins enjoying themselves."

"Oh?" He turned on her with and ice-cold stare. "It makes you happy that the goblins are happy? Well good, then, you can just go live in the goblin city with them!" With a stomp, he rose from his chair and stormed from the dining hall.

"Jareth!" Sarah called. The goblins watched silently as the Goblin Queen rose and jogged after the Goblin King through a door in the wall. Then they went back to laughing and joking with each other.

Sarah ran through the door and into the garden, lit only by the bright colors of the setting sun. "Jareth!" She called again, this time close enough to grab him by the arm and turn him around. "What was that supposed to mean?"

"What was what supposed to mean?" He had never looked more like a sulking boy to her than he did then.

"That I should go and live in the city with the goblins." Sarah searched his face for clues as to what she'd done wrong and how she could fix it.

"Oh, that. Well, to borrow a phrase you seem quite fond of using, I didn't mean it." He snatched his arm back and walked away, into the garden.

"You're really mad at me, aren't you?" Sarah stomped after him.

"Oh, mad? I don't know." Jareth blurted out his thoughts while tromping on down the twisting path. "Frustrated that you never seem to be grateful, yes. Annoyed that you constantly want me to do things that are against my nature, yes. And angry, yes, I am angry, Sarah!" He stopped and turned then, glaring at her with such a mixture of anger, fear, resentment, desperation, and longing that Sarah wasn't sure what to make of him. "I'm angry that you can't seem to recognize what you're already feeling. I can see it plain as day. And yet you choose to ignore it. Do you truly despise me so much that you would ignore your own heart?"

"What are you talking about?" Sarah clutched her one hand to her hair, completely bewildered, not just at his words, but also at the flipping of her stomach.

"There, you see! Just like that!" Jareth huffed and started to walk away from her again.

"Jareth! Stop! Come back! I'm not done talking to you!"

"Well I'm done talking to you!" He vanished.

Sarah growled and screamed at the garden. "Jareth! You make me so angry! I hate you, Jareth! I hate you! I wish you would just go away!"

Sarah vanished herself into her bedroom and threw her shoes at the wardrobe. She fairly ripped her sash off and yanked the dress so hard over her head that it hurt her ears. She pulled the wardrobe open and took a nightgown off a hanger.

After getting into bed and pulling the sash that closed the curtains, she found that sleep would not come easily. She tossed and turned, replaying every conversation she'd ever had with Jareth, trying to find one that hadn't ended in an argument or with her going back home from the labyrinth. An image of his face came unbidden into her mind, his cheek streaked with blue blood. She banished that, only to have it replaced by the stony expression he'd worn when he'd saved her from the worm in the tunnel. With a shout, she sat up and decided to try reading something, but as soon as she opened a book and held it near the light of a fire that had erupted at her mere will, she saw an outline of his face in the text. She tossed the book across the room and buried her face in her hands.

_What if I am falling in love with him?_ She thought to herself. _What's so wrong with that anyway?_

"Well he's the Goblin King!" She muttered. "That's what's wrong with it."

_And I'm the Goblin Queen, as far as the goblins are concerned anyway._

"Oh, it doesn't make sense. I hate him as much as...as much as...as anything else. He's so mean."

_He's been nice to me._

"Only because he wants me to like him. It was torture for him to be nice to the goblins."

"If you want my advice," a tiny voice piped up, "I'd stop hurting him."

"What?" Sarah looked around and spotted a bright blue worm staring at her from above the fireplace. "Oh, it's you."

"What?" The little work squinted up at her. "We haven't met. Maybe you saw my brother, lives near the entrance of the labyrinth."

"Oh," Sarah felt slightly deflated, "yes, I suppose it was him, then."

"That's alright, we're just worms. But if you want my advice, I'd stop hurting him."

"Hurting who?" Sarah asked as patiently as she could.

"The Goblin King of course. You do know you're hurting him."

"Hurting him how?" Sarah demanded flopping backwards into the yellow cushions of her chair.

"Well, take dinner. You were so happy about the goblins, but did you take even one notice of him?"

"Well I told him I was happy. Isn't that what he wants? For me to be happy?"

"Well, yes and no," the worm wiggled his head back and forth. "He wants you to be happy because of him, not because of the goblins."

"Well, he tricked me." Sarah protested.

"How so?" the worm asked conversationally.

"He made me wish I could stay here. And then he tried to kiss me!"

"Well, you wished yourself here, if I know wishes. And he probably thought kissing you was a good idea at the time."

"Oh, I'm sure he did." Sarah scoffed. "I'm not going to talk about this anymore. I'm going to go to sleep."

"Well, alright," the worm said with another wiggle. "Suit yourself, but if you want my advice, I'd stop hurting him."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen: Sarah Saves Jareth**

Sarah woke the next morning to the sound of thunder. The darkness of the storm made it hard to tell the time of day, but she felt as though it were late in the morning, nearly lunch time. She knew she hadn't slept well. As she rose from her bed, she thought about taking a bath, and watched a door grow out of the wall across from her bed, next to the fireplace.

On the other side of the door was a warm bath, with flowery soap and shampoo. Sarah took advantage of this, and of some very large, fluffy towels, before going to her wardrobe. She took out a familiar pair of jeans and a dark blue blouse, which she left open at the throat. Then she sat down at her vanity table and brushed carefully through her wet hair, expecting a knock on her bedroom door at any moment.

When the knock didn't come, she went to the door and opened it, half expecting to see him standing there on the other side of it. The corridor on the other side was empty. She went to the wardrobe and pulled on her old sneakers and stomped down the hall, and on down the stairs. When she grabbed the doorknob at the bottom of the stairs, she thought of the dining room.

This, too was empty, except for the silver place setting at her seat. Grumpily, she sat down and had a bowl of oat meal, which took a little focus, because first she had to mentally convince the plate to turn into a bowl.

She didn't have any water after her oatmeal, but went straight to the door again. This time, she thought of the garden. It was pouring in the garden, and no matter how she squinted into the wet, she couldn't see any sign of Jareth, not that this meant much of anything. He could have been on the other side of one of the hills and she would never have been able to see him. Still, she didn't expect that Goblin Kings went around in the rain.

She shut the door and concentrated on the throne room, but this, too was deserted. Except for the chicken clucking in the pit in front of Jareth's throne, and the buzzard snoring above the rounded chair. With an increasing frown, Sarah climbed the stairs at the back of the room and came to the tower where Jareth had looked out at the city through his window.

The rain was endless, drenching everything in sight. There was no way he could possibly be out there anywhere. So then where was he? In his own bedroom? Where were the goblins? Shouldn't they have been milling about anyway, no matter where Jareth was?

Sarah felt her knees go weak. _What if I wished him away?_ She thought. _But I thought I was all out of wishes!_ "Oh, no," she whispered to herself, "what have I done?"

Quickly, she vanished herself into her room and snatched up the crystal from her desk. "Show me Jareth," she demanded more harshly than was necessary. In fact, it hadn't even been necessary for her to say anything aloud, but in any case, it worked.

She could only see darkness within the crystal. "Oh, Jareth," she wailed, "where are you?" She dropped the crystal and closed her eyes, picturing him, the fluffy yellow hair on top of his head and the long strands that hung over his shoulders, the blue and brown eyes that had started to sparkle so recently, his long form, strong arms and strong legs.

Then she felt cold and opened her eyes. "Jareth?" She asked with a gasp at the darkness.

"Sarah?" A light flickered and then she could see him standing just a few inches in front of her, holding the stub of a candle.

"Jareth!" She threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're alright! I was afraid I'd wished you away!" She sniffled.

"Here, now, Sarah," Jareth set the candle down on a small table. "What wish are you talking about?"

"You mean you didn't hear it?" She looked up at him, not daring to let go in case he disappeared.

"No, Sarah. I already told you, you've made your three wishes. You don't get anymore."

"Good." Sarah felt the tears climbing up her throat, "Because I didn't mean that one either."

He smiled at her then, and it almost reached his eyes. "Here, Sarah, would you like to sit down?"

She nodded and let him lead her to a creaking old crate, but didn't let go of his shirt.

"Are you alright?" Jareth asked her, taking her hands in his. "Something's frightened you."

Sarah found that she was no longer able to keep her tears at bay, and they spilled over with every word she spoke, "I woke up late, and there was this horrible storm, and I couldn't find you anywhere, and there weren't even any goblins! A-and, and I was afraid that I'd-I'd never find you again. I know I'm being ridiculous." She lifted a hand to rub her nose.

"Shh," Jareth gently reached up and wiped her tears away. "I'm here, Sarah. I'll never be beyond your reach. You only have to call me. How did you get here anyway?"

Sarah shrugged. "I just thought of you, and then I was here."

Jareth smiled again. "You just thought of me, and then you were here."

She nodded. "Is that good?"

"Yes, Sarah. That's very good. I hope soon you'll know how good that is."

Sarah just nodded, and changed the subject, "where are we, anyway?"

"The oubliette." Jareth said brightly, waving a hand at the walls. Dozens of candle came alive, casting the room in dozens of shadows. "After I found my way out, I came back and turned it into a kind of hideaway. Whenever I wanted to be alone, or needed to think, I always came back here. No one else knew about it."

"But, Hoggle knew." Sarah protested, "the first time I was here, he showed me how to get out."

"Yes, well, soon enough a mortal found it while searching for a baby and then the secret was up." Jarath shrugged. "It's odd, though, all my things are still here." He reached down and picked up an old wooden sword. "Almost like no time has passed since I last used them."

"You must have had quite an imagination." Sarah suggested, finally feeling more in control of her tears, and more relaxed in general.

"Well, when you grow up in the labyrinth," Jareth chided her, "it does most of the imagining for you. The only thing for you to imagine is how to stay alive."

"What do you mean how to stay alive?" Sarah asked suspiciously.

"What? You think you're the first human whose head the fireys tried to take off?" Jareth smirked at her. "I've had to deal with them more times than I can count. There are so many dangers in this labyrinth, Sarah. So many challenges. Discovering I could do magic was the only reason I survived."

Sarah sniffled once more, and took a deep breath, remembering what the talking worm had told her the night before. "Jareth, I'm sorry."

He looked at her in surprise, "whatever for?"

She searched his face carefully until she was sure he was being sincere. "For hurting you."

"Sarah, I'm fit as a fiddle." He tapped his chest to prove it. "What are you talking about?"

"Well," Sarah took another deep breath. "I'm sorry for hurting your feelings. You seemed upset after dinner last night, and I wanted to apologize for upsetting you."

"That's alright, Sarah. I'm afraid I was being rather moody myself. Not really in my best form." After a thought, he added, "It's hard living up to your expectations. You know changing a wall in a tunnel is one thing, but changing a person? Might as well be impossible."

"Nothing's impossible, Jareth." Sarah leaned forward and rested her palm on the side of his face. "I beat your labyrinth, didn't I? You've survived all these years. You've already been so kind and made so much progress. It's not impossible to change. You've been changing me, after all."

"Have I?" Jareth stared at her expectantly.

"Well I'm not yelling at you, am I? And I don't hate you anymore." Sarah confessed.

"Ah, well, that's good to hear." The Goblin King laughed.

"I'm being serious," Sarah scolded.

"I know, I know." Jareth sighed and moved away from her. "It's just..." Sarah stood up and followed him across the room to the door that was propped against the wall. "If you could just see what's already in your heart, Sarah, you wouldn't be thinking about whether you hate me or not at all."

"Oh, not this again, please, Jareth!" Sarah felt as though every cell in her body had brushed up against a porcupine. "I'll be the one to decide what's going on in my own heart, thank you very much."

Jareth turned the knob and threw the door open. "Why must you be so stubborn?"

"Jareth!" Sarah yelped, stepping forward and reaching out her hand to grab his arm.

"Don't touch me!" He took a step away from her into the middle of the tunnel beyond.

"Jareth!" Sarah shouted and leaped, knocking him to the ground.

From his position beneath Sarah, Jareth had a very clear view of a giant spider with the head of a lion and the jaws of an alligator swooping down to take a chunk out of Sarah's back. "No!" He reached his open palm toward the creature and concentrated all his power.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen: Jareth's Love**

What was left of the spider creature was dripping on the walls. Jareth was leaning over Sarah's unconscious body, doing everything he could to repair the damage until his energy was spent. Tired and haggard, he looked around at the silent tunnel, listening to the rain drumming overhead. He lifted Sarah carefully, pulling her arms over his shoulders, holding her legs in his hands. Her head was resting on his neck so that he could hear her quiet, steady breathing.

"Hold on, Sarah." He whispered. "I'll take care of you."

He walked for a long time, listening carefully to any sound he could snatch beneath the thrumming rainfall and the occasional crack of thunder. Finally he came to a ladder. Trying to remember where it came up, Jareth set Sarah down and searched around him until he found a short length of rope. He tied her hands together and lifted them around his neck so that she would hang in front of him. Then he climbed the stairs.

Jareth climbed up out of the ground into part of the yellow corridors whose walls constantly changed. It had stopped raining and he felt relatively safe here, so he set Sarah down to untie the rope and look at the wounds on her back. Signs of infection had already begun to form around the edges of the one of the long, deep gashes in her back.

"Oh, Sarah," Jareth softly cooed, "Why did you do it?"

He held his hand over the wound and did what he could with his magic to remove the infection. Then he took off his shirt and tore it into strips that he bound around her back and chest and stomach, to help keep the wounds from bleeding out too much. He lifted her then and held her delicately in his arms. Sweat beaded on her face, though her expression was peaceful.

"Sarah," Jareth whispered, tracing a line from her ear to her chin along her jawbone with one finger, "what would I do without you?"

He took a deep breath and then hoisted her onto his back as he had done before and started to make his way through the changing maze. Thanks to many years of hard-won experience, Jareth soon found himself at the berry patch where Sarah and her friends had stayed so many hours to eat the delicious food. He didn't even glance twice at the bushes, but put Sarah down on the ground and treated her wounds again.

They were still in danger of infection, and she would need warmth and nourishment. He needed proper bandages and herbal salves. He was sure there would be some left in his storage room at the castle. Jareth took a deep breath and looked into the distance. The castle and the city were both visible from where they were. If he hurried, they could be back before nightfall.

"Just hang on, Sarah," he told her calmly, brushing her hair gently out of her face, "I'll take care of you."

"Mmm," Sarah mumbled in her sleep. "Jareth..."

"I'm here." He took her hand and raised her head when she started coughing.

"What happened? Where are we?" Sarah demanded groggily.

"You saved my life. We're by the berry patch. I can get us back to the castle by sunset." He answered her softly. "Rest, Sarah. You need to rest."

"Jareth..." she murmured as she drifted back into unconsciousness, "...I love you..."

He held those words in his ears as long as he could before kissing her gently on the forehead and whispering, "I love you, Sarah." Then he lifted her to his back once more and set off toward the castle. _She must be delirious_, he thought to himself, _she'd never say that to me otherwise._

The fireys watched them pass through their part of the forest from the bushes. Jareth only hoped that they would be wary enough of him not to challenge him. He knew he didn't have the strength to fend off even the smallest goblin, but he hoped that no one else would pick up on that. Luckily, the fireys let them pass without incident.

The rubbish people stared as he trudged through their territory, and the goblins came to their doors and windows to watch him carry her through the city. When he arrived at the door of the castle, a small child goblin tugged on his boot.

Jareth paused more out of weariness than out of concern for the goblin brat.

"Will the Goblin Queen be alright?" The little girl asked in such a small, high voice.

"Yes." The Goblin King answered gruffly, then turned and spoke to the crowd that had gathered behind him. "Sarah will be fine." He said to his audience, as much to assure himself as to assure them. "It's going to take time to heal her, though."

"Is there anything we can do?" A fat goblin standing by a cart of peaches asked.

"No." Jareth shook his head. "Healing her is beyond-" he stopped himself, thinking of the salves and supplies in his castle. "Is there an herbalist here?"

A tall, skinny goblin woman raised her arm. "I am!" Her purple horns glowed softly.

"You come with me. As for the rest of you," he licked his lips. _Sarah's always saying I need to take better care of them. Well, why not try to reassure them?_ "When the Goblin Queen is well, there will be a ball to celebrate. Think on that, and be happy." Then he turned and went into the castle with the goblin herbalist on his heels.

He didn't let anyone else touch her, and carried her himself through the corridors and up the stairs to his own bedroom. He laid her out on his own bed and quickly undid his makeshift bandages. The light outside was fading quickly under the heavy clouds and he waved a hand to light the dozen sconces along the walls in his room.

"Your majesty?" the herbalist coughed quietly.

"Yes, you, what's your name?"

"Middleweed, sir."

"Right, Middleweed, come here. I want you to see what we're dealing with." He removed the last of his blue shirt and allowed Middleweed to see the long gashes in her back and the infection that was obvious along the corners and edges.

"Oh, my...that's going to take some work."

"Yes," the Goblin King agreed. "I have a store room along the hallway just outside that door," he pointed across the room without taking his eyes off Sarah, "I want you to go there and grab anything that will be useful – clean bandages, herbal salves, soap to clean the wounds. I dare not leave her side."

"Yes, majesty." Middleweed scuttled off to do as she was asked and Jareth heard her speaking to a small crowd of goblins in the hallway just beyond his door.

"Just hang on, Sarah." Jareth murmured into her ear, "I'll take care of you."

He lifted her from the bed and kicked a door open. He set her gently into the bath, jeans and all, and moved the tatters of the back of her shirt to get a better view of the wounds themselves.

Middleweed came into the room with her arms full of medical supplies. She handed him the medical soap and a clean square of cloth, and Jareth set to work cleaning out the gashes.

"Sir?" Middleweed said quietly from the doorway, where she was watching, "wouldn't it be easier to treat if you removed her clothes."

Jareth smirked to himself. "She wouldn't be happy if I did such a thing. Come and see what I've done."

Middleweed tiptoed around the bath and looked at how Jareth had ripped away the torn cloth so that the wounds were easily accessible. _I must stop forcing myself upon her_, Jareth thought to himself, _that's what led to all this anyway. If I hadn't brought up what was going on in her own heart, I might have paid attention the first time she tried to warn me._

After cleaning the wounds, he had Middleweed help him dry them and rub the salve in. Then Jareth held her up carefully while Middleweed expertly wrapped the bandages around her back. Jareth lifted her then and carried her back to his bed. The cold night was sweeping in through the open balcony.

"Sir?" Middleweed cautiously offered her opinion once again, "she'll catch cold if she stays in those wet clothes."

Jareth sighed. "Yes, of course." With an effort, he tore himself from Sarah's side and went to his wardrobe. "Here," he yanked down a plain white gown with a low back. "Dress her in that." He picked out a clean black shirt for himself that was open halfway down the front with the puffy sleeves he always liked.

When Sarah was fully clothed again, Jareth lifted her and looked directly at Middleweed. "Brace yourself," he warned. The room around them shifted and then Jareth was holding Sarah on her own bed. "Shut the balcony curtains." He commanded as he lifted Sarah's blankets and gently tucked her into them.

Middleweed did the best she could to shut out the cold and then went back to the bed. "Sir? What else shall I do?"

Jareth looked at her blankly for a moment. "Go back to my room and get the supplies. As much as you can carry. Go out the door and down the hall." He nodded at the door on the other side of the room and then put all of his attention back to the young woman in the bed.

While Middleweed was gone, Jareth pulled one of the cushioned chairs forward and lit a roaring fire in the fireplace. He sat down next to her bed and clutched one of her hands in his. "Hang on, Sarah," he said again, "I'll take care of you."


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen: Sarah Wakes**

Sarah opened her eyes slowly, trying to figure out why her throat was so dry and her neck was so stiff. She started to take a deep breath and then fell into a coughing fit.

"Sarah! Careful, you've been badly injured." Jareth's arm was suddenly across her shoulders, helping her sit up, and his other hand was holding a silver goblet to her lips. "Here, you'll want some water."

She nodded and sipped carefully until the goblet was empty. It refilled itself, but Sarah shook her head and Jareth set it aside on a small bedside table that hadn't been part of her room before.

"How do you feel?" His eyes searched her face.

"My back hurts and my neck is stiff." She rubbed the side of her neck and tried to roll her shoulders, but winced at the shooting pain in her back.

"Yes, it's about time I looked at that again." He helped her roll over and then began prodding at the bandages, removing them carefully. "You've been asleep for several days," he informed her casually, "I've been healing you gradually." He didn't add that this was because his strength had been failing him. "Middleweed's been a great help."

"Who's Middleweed?" Sarah asked between winces as Jareth applied fresh salve to her back.

"She's a goblin herbalist. I found her in the city as I carried you to castle."

Sarah tried to force her brain cells to function. "You carried me? What about vanishing?"

Jareth glanced at the back of her head. "I'm afraid that wasn't an option at the time."

Sarah struggled to bring forth another thought from her sluggish mind, "what am I wearing?"

"A dress." Jareth answered curtly. "Middleweed took care of that, so don't waste your energy yelling at me."

Sarah smiled. "I suppose I have a lot to thank Middleweed for."

"Yes," Jareth agreed, dropping the used bandages into a bucket, and moved the chair so that he could lean against the wall near the head of Sarah's bed. "We both do."

"You look so tired, Jareth." Sarah murmured, reaching out a hand to him.

He took her one hand in both of his. _His hands are so warm,_ Sarah thought to herslf.

"My powers are limited, Sarah," Jareth explained softly. "I admit I did overdo it when I attacked the monster, but even if I had been more modest in my attack, I still wouldn't have had enough power left over to heal you completely. It was all I could to do to keep the infection at bay before I arrived at the castle. I've had some sleep now, and I've had a great help from Middleweed, and we have good supplies here. You're going to be fine, Sarah." He squeezed her hand gently. "Try to get some rest." He leaned forward and gently moved her hair out of her face with careful fingers.

"Thank you, Jareth." Sarah whispered, "for saving me. Again." She smiled a little.

"Thank you, Sarah," Jarath replied just as softly, "for saving me. Again."

"When did I save you before?" Sarah wrinkled her brows in thought, her eyes already closed.

"When we danced, at the enchanted ball." Jareth explained patiently. "That was when I first knew that I need you, that I had always needed you, and that I would always need you."

"Mmm," Sarah mumbled, drifting off to sleep whether she wanted to or not.

"Oh Sarah," he whispered, running his thumb up and down her jawline. "I'm so sorry I put you in danger. I'll never let it happen again."

***

Sarah woke often, from the pain in her back, and every time she woke, Jareth was there beside her to squeeze her hand and whisper to her until she fell back to sleep. She was vaguely aware of the passing of time, since her room went through various stages of light and dark. Then her spells of wakefulness began to last longer, and she finally felt well enough to ask Jareth to bring her a book to read. When he stayed by her side to watch her read, she asked if he wanted her to read aloud so that he could also enjoy the story.

She'd begun reading aloud, but after only a few pages, stopped when she heard Jareth's gentle snoring. _Has he not left my bedside at all?_ She wondered to herself, taking in the tired lines on his face and the dark rings under his eyes. _He must have been so worried about me. He doesn't look like he's had a decent night's sleep in days, maybe weeks._

"Oh, Jareth," Sarah whispered, resting her palm on his hand, which was sitting lazily in his lap. "What would I have done without you?" _Well, to start with, I wouldn't have jumped in front of that horrible spider thing. And before that, I would never have had to beat the labyrinth and rescue Toby._

Sarah stopped and thought about her first trip in the labyrinth more carefully. "I learned a lot back then, didn't I?" Jareth snored softly in reply. "And I suppose I'm learning a lot this time, too." She smiled to herself and shut her eyes.

Within moments, she was asleep as well.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen: Invitations**

Eventually, as Sarah began to get up and move around on her own, she demanded that Jareth allow himself some proper rest in his own room. She used the peace and quiet to take a bath on her own without Middleweed's help and put on a fresh dress. Actually, it was the green dress Jareth had given her. Her wounds had healed enough that she didn't need constant bandaging, but Jareth had insisted that she stay abed until he said otherwise.

She was propped up on her pillows in her bed, reading, when Jareth knocked.

"Come in." She placed her bookmark in her book and smiled at the doorway.

"How are you today, Sarah?" Jareth asked warmly as he shut the door and entered the room.

"I'm feeling so much better, and you look like you had a good rest." She reached out and took his hand in both of hers.

"Yes, I'm told I slept for over thirteen hours." He smiled and sat himself down in the chair beside her bed.

"Good." Sarah smiled back. "You needed it."

"Sarah," Jareth cleared his throat, "I owe you an apology."

"What for?" Sarah was fairly sure that he had at least tried to apologize for everything he'd done to upset her since she'd wished to stay in the labyrinth days and days ago.

"I've been trying to force my affection on you," he said stoutly, as if from memory. _He's been rehearsing_, Sarah thought, noticing how carefully he managed the muscles in his face, "and that was wrong of me. I want you to know that I won't be trying to tell you what's in your heart anymore, and I won't try to force myself on you."

"Thank you, Jareth," Sarah answered warmly, her heart drooping a little in her chest. "I appreciate that a lot."

"I thought you might." Jareth smiled softly at her. "So, I'll only stay as long as you want me to."

"Actually," Sarah thoughtfully glanced toward the balcony, "I'd really like to get out of bed and go for a walk."

Jareth studied her carefully. "I don't know, Sarah. Your wounds haven't fully healed yet."

Sarah looked away from him for a second, then turned back with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. "How about this? If I faint or get weak or something, you can just carry me back to bed." She pouted as cutely as she could, "Please, Jareth? Pleasepleaseplease?"

Jareth cast his eyes toward the ceiling. "I'll never be able to say 'no' to you, again, will I?"

Sarah almost blurted out something about letting her go home, but stopped herself just in time. If he could have sent her home, then he probably would have.

Jareth helped her up out of bed and she went immediately to her wardrobe to step into the dark green fabric ballet flats. Then Sarah opened the door and Jareth followed her into the hall, down the stairs, and out the door.

"Sarah, be careful! You don't want to open you wounds!" Jareth walked steadily behind her as she skipped ahead, among the flowers.

"I haven't been outside in so long!" Sarah sang, bending down to stick her nose into a cluster of flowers.

"Sarah! Be careful of the bees!" Jareth scolded her.

"Oh, Jareth." Sarah stood up straight and looked him dead in the eye as he caught up with her. "Don't crack down on me just because of one little mishap."

Jareth raised an eyebrow. "A mishap that almost got you killed."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Well I'm not going to die of a bee sting, am I? Really, you don't stop running forever just because you break your leg once. You heal and you get over it and then you go back to running. That's how these things work." She bounded on ahead of him, toward a cluster of trees.

The Goblin King shook his head and followed her at a more leisurely pace. He was still feeling a bit weak from their adventure in the labyrinth and he guessed it would take another week of thirteen-hour naps for him to really feel like himself again. Sarah, on the contrary seemed back to her old energetic, stubborn, beautiful self.

When he reached her again, she had plucked a peach of a tree and was examining it carefully. "If I eat this," she mused aloud, "I wonder, will I go to another enchanted ball?"

Jareth smiled at her, "what would you ever do at an enchanted ball?"

"Why, I would dance with the Goblin King!" Sarah announced and twirled herself in a circle. "Oh!" In her dizziness, she fell forward and Jareth caught her easily.

"You should be careful," he reminded her again.

"I know, I know." Sarah got her footing back, but kept one hand on Jareth's arm. "I've just been inside for so long, I can't tell you how wonderful it is to finally be out among the trees and the birds and everything." She waved the hand that was still holding the peach at the sky above her.

Then she brought down the peach theatrically and took an enormous bite out of it. "Mmm," she closed her eyes and threw her head back, dramatically enjoying the taste of it. "It's so delicious."

"I'm glad you like it." Jareth answered, smiling at her, feeling the warmth of her hand on his arm.

"All the food here is so delicious." Sarah added thoughtfully, taking another bite of the peach. "It's so magical." She said, looking up at him.

Jareth's smile widened and touched the sparkle in his eyes, "that's because it is magic."

"Jareth," Sarah's voice was suddenly very quiet, "are you happy?"

He blinked and for a moment his smile faded. Then it returned with all its splendor, "yes, Sarah. I am happy." He ran his fingers through her hair and just barely stopped himself in time from trying to kiss her.

"Good." Sarah smiled and took another bite out of the peach. "I'm glad. Everyone should be happy at least once in their lives."

"I should hope most people are happy all of their lives." Jareth responded as Sarah released his arm and started wandering among the peach trees.

"I would like to go to a ball," Sarah said, leaning against a tree and biting into her peach again. "And not be enchanted. I don't think I was able to fully enjoy the first one I went to."

Jareth smiled. "Well, you're in luck. I'm actually planning to have a ball in about a week, to celebrate your health. The goblins were all so worried about you, I had to promise them you'd be okay and tell them to look forward to your ball just to help them relax."

"Really?" Sarah stepped away from the tree and stared up at him with shining eyes, "you told them that to comfort them?"

"Yes, Sarah. I did."

"Oh, Jareth, you're wonderful. I knew you had it in you." She threw her arms around him and sighed deeply, breathing in his musky perfume.

Jareth let his hands rest in Sarah's hair, not quite trusting himself to touch her back without hurting her. "It's really you who's wonderful, Sarah," he said quietly, holding her gently. "I never would have found it in me without you."

Sarah was mildly surprised to find that she enjoyed being so close to him, and that his perfume was somehow comforting to her. "So there's going to be a ball," she said dreamily.

"Yes," Jareth answered her gently, softly, stroking her hair, "and you're going to be the star."

Sarah smiled into his shirt. "I hope I won't be alone."

"No, of course not." Jareth pulled away so that he could look into her face. "That is, if you wouldn't mind letting me take you to the ball?"

Sarah surprised them both by standing up on her tip-toes and planting a kiss on his cheek. "I'd love for you to take me to the ball."

"Then it's settled."

"Oh!" Sarah suddenly remembered, "Hoggle and Ludo and Sir Didymus – they're all invited, too, aren't they?"

"Yes, of course," Jareth replied smoothly, "anyone you want."

"Then I want the whole city and Hoggle and Ludo and Sir Didymus."

"Are you sure you want to go to a ball with a bunch of goblins?" Jareth asked her seriously.

Sarah laughed. "Well, if they'd rather go as humans, I won't complain. But I don't mind if they all want to come as warty toads. I'll have the best dancing partner of them all."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen: The Ball**

Sarah tried not to think of her family in the days that followed, but it couldn't be helped. Often, before going to sleep, she would stare into the crystal ball and watch her father and step-mother put Toby to bed. Then she would try to find her mother and watch whatever play she was currently acting in. More than once she wished she had some way to talk to them. But this was only at night.

During the day, she spent nearly all her time with Jareth, or visiting her friends in the labyrinth. At first, the Goblin King had been reluctant to allow Sarah back into the unpredictable labyrinth while he had to take care of some matter to do with the goblin city, but she promised him she would stay out of trouble and only visit her three friends.

She even spent some time walking about the goblin city, meeting the inhabitants and talking with them to learn more about them. As she had initially suspected, they were just as human as anyone she'd ever met in her life, and that made her a little homesick, but only just a little.

When the day of the ball arrived, Sarah spent the entire morning walking with Jareth in the garden, which had become a favorite place of theirs. They spoke about many things, from the affairs of the goblin city to Sarah's favorite movies and books. Jareth had promised to find a way to install a television somewhere in the castle so that Sarah could share her favorite movies with him.

"Sarah?" Jareth asked from his place beside her underneath a peach tree.

"Yes, Jareth?" She turned her head to look at him, and saw that he was staring straight ahead, which meant that he was nervous.

"For the ball, I've gotten you a new dress. If you don't like it, I'll understand. But, it would make me happy if you would wear it." He was working very hard to keep his features very still.

"Alright," Sarah gently promised, "I'll look at it."

Jareth nodded. "That's all I ask. It'll be in your wardrobe. Now," he cleared his throat and stood. "I should be off," he held out his hands and helped her to her feet. "I've still got to speak with the goblin council before I can get ready for the ball. You'll be alright to amuse yourself?"

"Actually," Sarah said softly, staring up into his blue and brown eyes. "I was thinking I might start getting ready myself." She had planned on a rigorous bathing and make up regiment and she would need time to make sure that every detail was exactly right.

Jareth nodded again, stiffly. "Right. Shall I walk you to your room?"

"Yes, thank you." Sarah stepped forward and took his elbow, as had become their custom.

They walked slowly and in silence out of the garden, through the door, up the stairs, and down the corridor. The corridor had been extended since their adventure with the spider and Jareth's bedroom was now just down the hall.

"I'll see you at dinner," Jareth promised gruffly.

"See you at dinner," Sarah answered with a nod.

Then Jareth turned and walked away, and Sarah shut the door. She leaned against it momentarily to steady her heartbeat. Then she went straight to the wardrobe to see what kind of dress Jareth had left for her.

***

Jareth paced the floor behind his chair at the head of the dinner table. He was dressed in a black shirt with a white vest and a golden coat over black pants and black boots. His hands were bare, his hair just as wild as it always was, but with just a touch more shine than usual. There was a thin layer of gold on his lips as well. Nearly all the goblins in the city had shown up, some the guise of humans, but most as their own selves. Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo were all present and accounted for. The only one left was -

The door near the head of the table opened and a woman stepped into the room, dressed in an elegant royal purple ball gown with long split sleeves off the shoulder and a moderately fluffed skirt falling down off a curved bodice. All the detailing and decoration in the dress, and there was quite a bit, was done in gold thread that perfectly matched Jareth's coat. Her dark hair was pulled up at the top of her head and the ends left to hang down in ringlets. Her face was carefully painted to accent her gray eyes, thin nose, and full pink lips. She was the most beautiful creature in the room, and everyone was aware of this.

Jareth bowed when she entered and pulled out her chair for her. Once the Goblin Queen and the Goblin King were seated, the rest of the room also took their seats. Sarah had an absolutely wonderful time at dinner, talking with her friends and some of the goblins while they ate course after course off magic silver plates and drank whatever they wanted out of magic silver goblets.

When it became clear that the meal was ending, Jareth rose and helped Sarah to her feet, offering her his hand. They walked to the door near the head of the table, and led everyone else into an enormous ballroom. There chandeliers upon chandeliers in the ceiling, casting glistening light all over the room and dancing shadows in the corners. The floor itself was a pale yellow marble and a band of goblins was stationed on a raised floor at one end of the long room, playing an old renaissance song.

Jareth bowed to Sarah, who curtsied in return, and placed a hand on her waist and held her other hand in his own. Sarah placed her free hand on Jareth's shoulder and quickly whispered a confession, "I haven't done any ballroom dancing in a long time."

"That's alright," Jareth whispered back as he stepped into the music, "just follow my lead. You're so beautiful no one will notice if you miss a step."

Sarah smiled and felt her face turning red.

Throughout the night, she and Jareth never stopped dancing, and Sarah was sure he had somehow enchanted the floor or at least their feet. She caught glimpses of Hoggle and Sir Didymus dancing with various goblins and other figures, while Ludo seemed to hover near the refreshment table the entire night, munching on crackers.

After they had danced so long that Sarah thought she would never stop being dizzy, Jareth led them to an open doorway and out into the garden without skipping a step. They danced all the way to the peach orchard, and when Jareth let go, Sarah promptly threw her back against a tree for support.

"That was wonderful, Jareth!" Sarah announced breathlessly. "I've never had so much fun in my life!" She closed her eyes for a moment and took in a deep breath of the cool night air.

"You're much better at dancing than you thought you were." Jareth answered in kind.

Sarah smiled at him and pushed off the tree to twirl her back into his arms. "I wish this night would never end."

Jareth wrapped his arms around her and squeezed around her waist. "It's a good thing you've used up all your wishes. I don't think you'd really mean that one after a while."

"No? Why's that?" Sarah twisted her head around to look up into his eyes.

"Because you'd miss the sun."

She smiled at him. "How did you get to know me so well, Jareth?"

He laughed. "Well, spending so much time with you certainly didn't hurt."

Sarah's smile warmed and deepened. His laughter was a sound that she cherished. It meant that he was happy, and his happiness multiplied her happiness by hundreds or even thousands. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she didn't particularly care about the why, as long as he was happy. She twisted her neck back so that she was staring ahead of her and just swayed her hips gently side to side, relishing in the feeling of his body matching her movement.

She closed her eyes and her thoughts drifted. _I wish my mother were here, and her fiancé, Jeremy. They would have loved this._

"What are you thinking, Sarah?" Jareth's voice was a whisper in her ear.

"Oh, it's nothing." Sarah ignored the shiver that tickled down her spine in response to the closeness of his voice. She dared not open her eyes.

"Something's troubling you. I can see it on your face. Please tell me." He whispered earnestly, "Perhaps there is something I can do."

"Oh, it's just that I miss my family," Sarah answered, deflating a little, "I can see them in the crystal you gave me, but I can't talk to them, and I miss them so terribly. My mother and her fiance, for example," she opened her eyes then and realized just how close Jareth's face was to hers, "they would have loved this ball," she whispered.

"You know you can use the crystal like a telephone?" Jareth suggested quietly. "It takes a lot more concentration than just watching someone, but it can be done. You know you won't be able to tell them about the labyrinth."

"No, of course not," Sarah replied quickly. _Not like they'd believe me anyway._

"They'll think you're off at school and living on your own." Jareth went on, "but you could speak to them if it would make you happy."

She smiled anew. "Yes, Jareth. That would make me happy." _I'm going to try that_, Sarah promised herself, _not tonight, because it'll be too late, but sometime tomorrow I'll call my mother and I'll tell her all about this wonderful guy I met named Jareth. It might be enough to make even her jealous. Jeremy's so great to her, it's hard to find someone better, but I think I may have hit the jackpot._

Suddenly Sarah removed herself from Jareth's hold and walked forward a few steps.

"I'm sorry," Jareth immediately said, "I've made you uncomfortable."

"No, it wasn't you." Sarah explained quickly. "It was...something in my own thoughts."

"Can I make you comfortable again?" The Goblin King asked, stepping forward and offering her a hand.

"You can take me dancing again." Sarah answered, and accepted his hand.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty: Calling Mom**

The next morning, Sarah woke without a trace of stiffness anywhere in her body. "Maybe he enchanted the dress," she mumbled as she sat up and parted the curtain around her bed.

Yawning and stretching, Sarah wrapped a thin green robe around her nightgown and grabbed up the crystal from her vanity table on her way to the balcony. She held the ball close to her lips and concentrated very hard on her mother's cell phone number.

There was a faint ringing, and then, "Hello?"

"Hey!" Sarah's eyes popped open in excited surprise. "Mom? It's me, Sarah."

"Oh, Sarah! How are you? How's college? I've been waiting to hear from you."

"Yeah, Mom, I know. I'm sorry I didn't call you sooner. It's been so hectic getting settled in over here." This was not a lie, Sarah decided, just a carefully worded truth.

"I'm sure it has been. So how is it? You like your classes? Did you find a weekend job? Have you found a guy?"

Sarah smiled at her mother's enthusiasm and watched in the crystal as she lounged across a sofa. "Actually, I found this great guy. His name's Jareth, and he's such a dream."

"Really? Tell me all about him!"

"Well, he's so sweet to me, Mom. He walks me everywhere he can, and he's good to talk to, and once I got hurt really bad and he was the one to take care of me, and you know he never left my side until he was sure I was well?"

"What? You got hurt? Sarah! Were you hospitalized?"

"No, no, mom! It wasn't anything like that. I just couldn't get out of bed for a while, that's all. And Jareth was always there to help me around. It was really sweet of him."

"Well it sounds like he's really into you."

"Yeah, he really is."

There was a brief silence.

"Well?" Her mother prompted, "what about you?"

"Me? Well, I don't know, mom. I like him as a friend, but there's just something different about him."

"Is he handsome?"

"Yes..."

"Does he take care of you?"

"Yes..."

"Do you like him?"

"Yes..."

"Then what's the problem? Has he asked you out yet?"

"Well, yes, actually, he has. A couple of times."

"And you said 'no'?"

"Well, he lied to me once when we first met." Sarah pouted. This phone call was not going as planned. She hadn't expected her mother to take Jareth's side.

"What did he lie about?"

"I lost something that was very important to me, and he knew where it was, but he wouldn't tell me and he made me look for it by myself."

Her mother laughed. "That sounds like flirting to me. Why are you so upset about something like that? It sounds like he's a really great guy. You know, Jeremy used to do stupid stuff like that when we first met. I thought he was just being mean for no reason, but later on he explained himself, and I told him that there were much better ways to win my affection. And, well, the rest is history." She laughed again, content. "If he makes you happy, Sarah, then I think you should go for it. You won't find another guy like that for a long time. Trust me, I know."

Sarah sighed, watching as the door to her mother's living room opened and Jeremy walked in with a box of chocolates.

"I gotta go sweetie," her mother said quickly into the phone, jumping up off the couch and going straight to her beloved. "Good luck with Jareth."

"Thanks, Mom." Sarah grinned at the crystal, "Tell Jeremy I said 'hi'."

"Will do, honey. Love you."

"Love you, too, mom."

"Bye."

"Bye."

Her mom hung up and Sarah watched her embrace Jeremy before letting go of her concentration on the crystal. She turned her attention to the balcony and went out to lean on the marble guardrail. It overlooked the garden, which was enormous, but not endless. Jareth was down in the peach trees, and he looked up at her and waved. Sarah smiled, straightened, and waved back.

A second later, Jareth was standing beside her. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, very." Sarah answered, rubbing one arm with her opposite hand. "You?"

"Exceptionally." He said with a smile.

"Good." Sarah let the silence stretch out for a moment, before going back into her room and placing the crystal back on her vanity table.

"Did it work?" Jareth asked, watching her with the crystal.

"Hm?"

"The phone call?"

"Oh, yes, it did. I called my mother." Sarah did her best to smile, but felt how strained it probably looked.

"And how is she?" Jareth asked conversationally, for once not seeming to notice the stiff awkwardness of Sarah's pose.

"She's great. Engaged and happy as can be."

"Engaged? That's fantastic!" Jareth looked as though he were genuinely happy for her.

"Um, yes. So," Sarah turned and walked over to her wardrobe. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, for me, it's just you. The goblins and everyone are all sleeping off last night. I think everyone's taking a holiday today. Is there anything you'd like to do today, Sarah?"

"Ah, well..." she stared at the garments in her wardrobe, a mixture of the jeans and shirts she'd worn at home and some very elegant, sparkling dresses Jareth had given her recently.

"If you wore that one we'd match." He pointed to a burgundy and black dress that exactly matched the colors of his burgundy shirt and black pants.

"Yes, we would..." Sarah deliberately chose a modest pale blue T – shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans.

Jareth shrugged. "Whatever makes you happy, Sarah." He skipped back over to the balcony and took in a deep breath. "I could show you the library," he suggested. "You like reading so much, I probably should have shown you sooner."

"That sounds like fun." Sarah ducked into her washroom to change while Jareth stared out at the garden.

"I'm not sure what kinds of authors we have there," Jareth continued to ramble, "but there must be something there you'll like."

"What kinds of books do you usually read?" Sarah asked after pulling her shirt over her head.

"Uh, well, when I used to have time to read," Jareth started nervously. Sarah smiled, picturing the frown on his face as she applied deodorant to her underarms. "I read adventures mostly and some fantasy kinds of things."

"Well, then I probably will find something I'll like." Sarah announced as she came back into her room and sat down at her vanity table to brush her hair.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One: Another Baby**

So the days passed, turning into weeks, and weeks into months. Sarah found herself feeling truly content. She was able to talk with her family as often as she wanted, and see them just as often, and she reasoned that this was more than would have been true if she'd actually gone to college. Meanwhile, she was enjoying her time spent with the goblins, and especially the time she spent with Jareth. His personality continued to melt, and Sarah felt her own heart melting a little every time she saw him.

Jareth found that if he was very careful, and very patient, Sarah would grant him small moments of closeness. Rarely, if he did something she thought particularly wonderful, she would even give him a small peck on the cheek. He still wanted to be more to her, but at least this was better than her yelling at him every time he tried to press her. He even invited her to sit with him at the goblin petty court and in the goblin council meetings. She was able to inspire a respect and order that Jareth had never been able to accomplish in all his hundreds of years as Goblin King. He couldn't help admiring her for that.

The goblins, of course, adored her, just as he did, and the labyrinth itself fairly sang every time Sarah was out and about, visiting her friends.

Then it happened. They were sitting in the goblin court one day in mid-morning when suddenly all the goblins fell silent, pricking up their ears.

"Oh, no." Jareth rolled his eyes and dropped his brow into his hands.

"What?" Sarah asked, sitting forward in the recently-installed silver throne next to Jareth's gold one, "What is it, Jareth?"

"The goblins," he whined, "they're going to take another baby." He took a deep breath and sat up straight again. "I hate this," he muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Sarah looked at the goblins in the room. "Why are they all listening like that?"

"Because some stupid mortal is about to wish that the Goblin King will come to take his baby away, right now." Jareth drew the words out lamely.

"And you don't like that?" Sarah questioned, searching his face for signs of a joke.

"Sarah," he gave her a pained look, "if someone plopped a baby into your lap and told you to babysit for thirteen hours, how would you feel?"

She laughed then, remembering the pains she'd gone through babysitting Toby so many times. "Alright, I see how that could be annoying."

Suddenly the goblins all leaped and cheered and ran off in various different directions, some crashing into each other.

"Well," Jareth stood with a huff, "that's my cue. I'll be back soon, Sarah."

"Alright." She sat back in her throne and watched him vanish, ignoring the odd feelings her blood was sending through her body. With a sigh, she propped her elbow on the arm of her rounded throne and rested her chin on her palm. She hoped the throne room wouldn't be too empty for too long.

Actually, it was almost no time at all before the goblins returned with a screaming baby held high above their heads.

"What are you doing?" Sarah yelped, standing and going immediately to the baby, "you can't hold him like that! Give him to me!"

The goblins, looking fairly admonished, let go of the babe and Sarah cradled him in her arms, only that was when she realized he was a girl. She had on a little pink dress and cute pink slippers, and sweet red curls all around her face. Sarah's heart did what most female hearts do in such situations and melted entirely.

"Shhh," she cooed to the child, bumping her on her hip, cradling her in her arms. "Shhh, everything's going to be okay. You're going to be just fine, little one." She turned and walked in a circle around the thrones, rocking and bumping the baby. "Shhh," she tried humming then, and that seemed to calm the baby, so Sarah tried singing aloud, totally wrapped up in calming the squalling child. At last, the baby yawned her little red mouth and fell asleep, exhausted from her upset.

Sarah smiled down at her and sighed, finally looking up at the room of goblins. They were all snoring, sitting in clusters and leaning against one another, or just sprawled out on the floor.

"I'll have to remember you can do that." Jareth said, leaning against the door.

Sarah gasped, but stopped herself from jumping. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it would put the goblins to sleep, too."

"I've always thought they needed a proper mother," Jareth mused, crossing the length of the room to stand next to Sarah and smooth down the baby's vibrant red hair.

"Who's coming for her?" Sarah asked quietly, but urgently.

"An older brother, named David." Jareth answered just as quietly. "Her name's Kristin."

"Ah, Kristin." Sarah smiled down at the baby.

"You seem to be getting attached." The Goblin King noted.

Sarah glared at him. "You shouldn't have taken her."

"Sarah, it was a wish. I've already explained to you how binding wishes are."

"Well it was still wrong." Sarah scolded the Goblin King as quietly as she could so as not to wake or jostle the baby. "You can't just go around stealing babies all the time."

Jareth rolled his eyes. "In case you didn't notice, Sarah, it was the goblins that went and stole the baby."

"Well then tell them to stop!"

"You think I haven't tried?" Jareth's outburst nearly woke the baby and Sarah had to cuddle her some more to quiet her again. "They can't help themselves, Sarah." He went on, his voice hushed again, "They hear someone wishing a baby away, and off they go. It's all I can do to keep up with them. I offer mortals a chance to get their babies back so at least I don't have to babysit for very long, and at least the baby has a chance to not be raised by goblins."

Sarah stared at him. "So you do it out of kindness?"

Jareth shrugged. "I have to work within the wish, just as I told you. And, really," he glanced over his shoulder at the snoring goblins, "as much fun as I had growing up, no human child ought to be raised by goblins, or turned into one, either, but I always felt that was better than just leaving them to grow up as humans among goblins."

"If you think being a goblin is so much better," Sarah bitterly retorted, "why didn't you just turn yourself into one?"

"Because by the time I thought of it, I was too old." Jareth snapped back. "It only works on babies and small children, Sarah. They're more malleable. Teenagers and adults are too set in who they are to change them into goblins. I tried. It can't be done."

She stared at him again. "Jareth..."

"Yes, Sarah?" He steeled himself for further abuse.

Sarah shook her head. "Nevermind. Where's her older brother now?"

"I left him at the beginning, near where I left you." Jareth produced a crystal and gazed into it. "There, he's talking to Hoggle now."

Sarah craned her neck to see inside the crystal. "What's he doing!" Her shocked whisper hissed. "He can't kick Hoggle like that! I know he was annoying at the start, but to try beating answers out of him is ridiculous! Here, Jareth, take the baby. I'm going to go-"

"Sarah, stop." He put a hand under her chin and lifted her face so he could look into her eyes, "it's best not to interfere unless absolutely necessary. I find that people generally tend to make their own luck in the labyrinth. He'll get what he deserves, Sarah. The labyrinth will see to that."

"But what about Kristin?" Sarah asked, rocking the baby gently out of habit. "she deserves to go home, doesn't she?"

"Well," Jareth murmured by her ear, "that's up to David now."


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Helping David**

Sarah left Jareth to watch Kristin's older brother in his crystal and wake his snoring goblins. She took Kristin outside to the garden and rocked and bumped her as they wandered among the plants. Sarah hummed and sang occasionally and Kristin was an absolutely pleasant baby.

"Now why on earth would anyone want to wish you away?" Sarah asked the baby softly.

"Milady!" A familiar goblin voice rang out across the grass.

Sarah turned and smiled, "Middleweed! What is it?"

"Here, milady." The goblin herbalist handed Sarah a bottle and a burping cloth. "I thought the babe might be getting hungry soon."

"Thank you, Middleweed. Do you always help when there's a baby to take care of?"

The thin lanky goblin woman stared down at her toes, her purple horns giving off a pulsating glow. "Well, no, actually. I've always just been a city goblin until the Goblin King requested my services."

"I see." Sarah shifted Kristin around and offered her the bottle. "Well I'm very glad that you're part of the castle goblins now. Thank you for your help."

"Yes, milady." Middleweed peeked up at the child that the Goblin Queen was feeding.

"Here, did you want to try?" Sarah knelt and held out the child for Middleweed.

"Oh, no! I might drop her." Middleweed clamped her hands behind her back.

Sarah went back to feeding Kristin, sitting comfortably on the ground with her legs crossed, resting her back against a tree. Middleweed stayed for a while to keep Sarah company and help her watch the baby. Sarah suspected Middleweed had never seen a human baby before and was, for the first time, experiencing the magic that belongs solely to human babies.

"Sarah," Jareth appeared a few feet in front of her.

Middleweed jumped up, bowed, and scampered off.

"Yes, Jareth?" Sarah looked up from her place under the tree.

"The boy has given up." He told her firmly. "He's in the oubliette, despairing. It's time to turn the baby into a goblin."

"What? No!" Sarah stood then, clutching Kristin protectively against her bosom. "How long has it been?"

"Four hours. He's lasted much longer than most people do, Sarah. It's time. Give me the baby." He held out his arms.

"No, Jareth! It's not fair!" Sarah took a step away from him.

"Sarah, we've had that discussion." The Goblin King rolled his eyes impatiently. "Give me the child."

"No! No, when I was in the oubliette Hoggle was there!"

"Yes, I sent him there to lead you back to the beginning." Jareth curtly reminded her. "Hand me the baby!"

"No! No, you should – you should give David a chance. Send someone to show him out of the oubliette!" She took another step backward and away from him.

Kristin started fussing and Sarah busied herself with calming the baby.

Jareth cast his eyes to the sky in a helpless gesture and took a deep breath. "What do you suggest?"

"Well if you won't do anything, I'll go." Sarah kept her eyes glued to the baby, rocking her gently.

"And do you intend to take the baby with you?" Jareth asked with an arched eyebrow.

"No, that would defeat the whole purpose of the labyrinth." Sarah answered without thinking twice.

"Then are you going to give the child to me or not?"

Sarah sized him up. "Will she still be human when I get back?"

"You have my word as the Goblin King," Jareth said slowly, carefully pronouncing each word, "Kristin will be human when you get back."

"Alright, but if she's even got a toe out of place..." Sarah threatened as she handed the sleeping baby over and took a step back before vanishing.

As soon as Sarah was gone, the babe began to scream, and Jareth turned to go back inside the castle, trying to hold on to a very unhappy Kristin.

***

"Who're you!" A frightened boy about twelve years old asked with a sniffle, trying to crawl further into his corner.

"I'm no one to be trifled with," the tall woman in the brown renaissance gown stated in a regal British accent. "You must be David."

"Y-yes..." He slid forward a little as candles around the room burst into flame, dressing the beautiful woman in a mysterious orange glow.

"Well, I'm here to help." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

David got to his feet. "Um, thank you, but there aren't any doors or windows or anything in here. I'm just trapped in this hole." He sniffled and wiped his nose on the back of his hand.

"This isn't just a hole," Sarah informed him coldly, "it's an oubliette. And there is a door," on a whim she added, "but I won't show it to you unless you give me something." _I had to give Hoggle my bracelet after all_, she thought to herself. _I'm not here to just give him an easy way out. He's got to show he really wants to get his sister back._

"But I don't have anything." David whined, patting his pockets and kicking at the mess around him.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure there's something." Sarah studied his appearance carefully, "like your hat."

"My lucky baseball cap!" David's hands clamped down on the well-worn hat atop his head. "But I worked so hard to get the bill to bend just right!"

"Well, if you don't want my help."

Sarah started to turn around as if to leave, but David shouted, "No! Stop! I have to save my sister..." he took the hat carefully off the top of his head and held it out to her. "Please."

Sarah snatched the cap out of his hand. "Very well," she did her best to keep her face impassive and cold. "You're standing on it."

"Standing on what?" David looked down at his feet.

"The door." Sarah explained, "just lean it up against the wall and open it. You'll find your way." Then she vanished, hat and all.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-Three: David's Victory**

"That wasn't half bad," Jareth remarked as Sarah appeared in front of her throne and plopped down.

"Where's Kristin?" She asked suddenly, looking all around the room.

"Napping." Jareth answered crossly. "Middleweed's watching her."

Sarah grinned. "Oh. Good." She took a deep breath and flapped the hat back and forth.

"What possessed you to ask for the hat?" Jareth inquired with an odd look on his face.

"You don't like it?" She asked, pulling the cap firmly down on her head.

"It's ugly."

"It's not your century."

David's screaming suddenly errupted from the crystal. "Oh," Jareth remarked in a bored voice, "the cleaner's found him."

"Oh!" Sarah leaned over to get a better look at what was going on, "I hope he gets away."

***

Almost nine hours later, Sarah was rocking the sleeping baby in her arms while Jareth was gazing intently at the crystal.

"Well, that's done it, then." He announced with a sigh and watched the entrance to the throne room expectantly.

"Hm? What's done what?" Sarah asked with a yawn as a guard clambered into the room.

"He's at the gate, sir!" The bushy-faced goblin announced, "but I don't think he'll make it past humongous!"

"Yes, I know that," Jareth replied. "Don't let him be killed. Capture him when he's clearly done and bring him here." The Goblin King stood and stretched his back. "You'd better take the baby out of sight, Sarah."

"What are you going to do to David?" She asked as she stood, still rocking the baby.

"I'm going to challenge him," Jareth answered.

"I thought he lost?" Sarah somehow managed to rub one eye with her hand while still cradling Kristin.

"Well, yes, but there are three challenges to the labyrinth." The Goblin King explained while he walked Sarah gently to the stairs at the back of the room. "There's the labyrinth itself, the goblin city and the castle, and then there's me. By beating the labyrinth, he's proved that his love for the child is stronger than his desire to wish her away. He's too weak to beat the city or the castle, but if he faces me and is able to recognize that his love for his sister is stronger than my power over her, then he can have her back."

"Mmm, that sounds good." Sarah tottered at the edge of the stairs.

"Are you sure you don't want to just go to bed?" Jareth ran the fingers of one hand gently through her satin-like hair.

Sarah shook her head. "No. I'll stay awake until he gets here."

"Alright, then. Up the stairs."

Sarah nodded and trudged away.

Just as Jareth positioned himself regally in front of his throne, a pair of goblins burst into the room hauling David by the arms. "Leave him." Jareth commanded, watching David struggle to his feet as the goblins marched away. "Welcome," the Goblin King opened his arms wide, "you've arrived at the castle beyond the goblin city."

"Thanks." David glared at the Goblin King as best he could despite his pitifully empty stomach and weary physical state. "Give me back my sister."

"Tut, tut," Jareth waved a finger back and forth, "not so fast." He pulled a crystal out of thin air and held it before David's face, "you don't want your sister back, David. You want to be treated like a prince, don't you? Eat whatever you want, do whatever you want, and no one to tell you otherwise. I can give you that," he added with a low whisper, waving the crystal under David's nose. "You only have to worship me as you king and then you could be a prince."

"I want my sister back." David said, resolutely ignoring the crystal in front of his face. "I did what you said. I got through the labyrinth. Now give me back my sister. There's nothing else you can do to me, or her. Give her back. I've won."

"You've won?" the Goblin King laughed, "you crumbled at the feet of my machine! You never even made it into the goblin city. How can you claim that you've won?"

"I didn't give up." David took a step forward. "You don't lose until you give up. And if I have to go back and do it all again, I will. Because I haven't given up, and I'm not giving up, and I'll never give up, and you have to give me back my sister." He stuck out his arms as if she would drop from the ceiling.

"That'll do." Jareth announced quietly and tossed his crystal up in the air.

***

Sarah was roused by the gentle rocking motion all around her. "Kristin?" She tried to sit up.

"Shh, rest, Sarah." Jareth's hushed whisper cooed in her ear. "Kristin's gone home. David won."

"Oh," Sarah leaned into his shoulder, "good. I'm glad it all worked out."

Jareth smiled at her. "Yes, Sarah. It all worked out."

He carried her into her bedroom and laid her carefully on her bed, tucking the blanket in around her. He stayed by her side for a few moments, brushing her hair out of her face, and listening to her breathe.

A breeze danced through her balcony and Jareth rose and walked out to it, feeling a song in his heart, as he sometimes did. He hummed softly at first, finding the melody. Then he sang quietly, knowing only the moonlight would hear him:

It's only forever,

That's not long at all.

I open my arms,

Catch you when you fall.

The jewels in your cruel eyes

Outshine the moon.

I hope that you'll see me

Someday soon.

What kind of magic spell to use?

There is no magic I can find,

To change your heart,

Alter your mind.

It's only forever,

That's not long at all.

I'll wait and I'll wait and I'll wait

Till your walls crumble and fall.

He pulled the curtains shut and turned then, looking at her. "I love you, Sarah." Then he vanished.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Sarah's Love**

Sarah woke the next morning to spots of sunlight drifting through her lacy curtains. "Kristin?" She murmured as she sat up and looked around, fuzzy memories of the night before drifting to the forefront of her mind. "Oh! He carried me here!" She looked all around herself and realized that he must also have tucked her in and shut the curtains.

Sarah bit her lip and hugged her knees to her chest. "It's been weeks, months now, and he's getting nicer and nicer. Not just to me, but to everyone. He's so happy now. And I'm happy." She looked up at her room, the vanity table, the empty fireplace. "So what's the problem?"

A familiar knock tapped at her door.

"Come in," Sarah smiled at him as he entered the room, wearing a dark green shirt with a low frilly neck and long frilly sleeves and gray pants with black boots.

"Good morning," he returned the smile brightly. "How did you sleep?"

"Like a rock," Sarah answered dreamily, resting her chin on her knees. "You?"

"About the same," Jareth motioned at the bed, "may I?"

"Mmhmm," Sarah nodded and watched him sit on the edge of her bed.

The silence stretched between them until Jareth said, "I thought you'd like to know I sent them back..."

"I remember." Sarah said quietly.

Jareth nodded. "Of course. You woke up a little, didn't you?"

She nodded. "A little."

The silence stretched again, like a lazy cat.

"What would you like to do today?" Jareth finally asked.

Sarah shrugged. "Spend time with you?"

He smiled warmly. "Of course. I suppose we'll start with breakfast?"

She smiled back. "Yes, breakfast would be great." She cleared her throat and sat up straight. "I'll meet you in the dining room in a few minutes."

Jareth nodded stiffly and vanished. Sarah let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"I don't see the problem, either." A tiny voice squeaked from her vanity table.

"What?" Sarah squinted at the vanity table.

"I said, I don't see the problem, either." The little blue worm squeaked again.

"See what problem?" Sarah asked, climbing out of bed and heading for the wardrobe.

"About you being in love with the Goblin King!"

Sarah let out a halting gasp. "I'm not in love-"

"Then why does your heart flutter every time he walks in the room?" The worm demanded.

"What are you talking about?" Absently, she plucked out the first dress Jareth had given her.

"I'm a worm. I can sense these things." It waited while she changed out of the brown dress into the light green one. "So? Are you going to tell him?"

"Tell who what?" Sarah slipped her feet into the dark green ballet flats.

"Tell the Goblin King you're in love with him!" The worm insisted from her vanity table.

"It's not that simple." Sarah answered, tying the dark green sash around her waste as she walked over to the vanity table. "He used to be so mean." She picked up her brush and ran it through her hair.

"Yes, and I believe the key phrase in that sentence would be 'used to'." The worm pointed out, head bobbing up and down to the time of Sarah's brushing.

"Well, telling someone you love them is a big step," Sarah protested, setting the brush down and applying a green clip to one side of her head. "I've never been in love before, and I'm only just 18! How do I even know what love is?"

"If you're asking that question, I think you know a lot more about it than you think you do." The worm suggested with a nod.

Sarah huffed and left the room with a scowl that melted away completely as soon as she saw Jareth standing by the dining table. Breakfast passed in silence, each of them eating slowly and deliberately.

"Shall we walk in the garden?" Jareth asked when he saw that Sarah was sipping the last of the water she usually drank at the end of a meal.

She nodded and Jareth helped her out of her chair, then led the way to the door on the other side of the room.

Sarah took in a deep breath and let the fresh air course through her veins. "Oh, I love this garden so much."

Jareth smiled and looked down at her bright face as they walked, "I'm glad you like it."

_I feel reckless_, Sarah thought. _It's something about this garden. _They went straight for the peach trees and Sarah surprised herself and Jareth by grabbing hold of a low branch and hauling herself up into the tree.

"Sarah!" Jareth called out, "what are you doing?"

"I'm climbing a tree!" Sarah called back.

"Why? Is there some kind of problem?"

"Problem?" Sarah continued lifting and stepping further into the tree, the branches bending and creaking beneath her weight. "Of course there's no problem. Why would there be a problem?"

"I'm sure I don't know." Jareth grumbled in the shadows of the branches. "I'm not the one climbing a tree."

"I don't know, either." Sarah murmured to herself, still climbing higher. "Maybe there really isn't a problem, and maybe that's been my problem all along." The branch beneath her foot snapped and broke.

With a scream, Sarah fell through the leaves and branches, only to land with a thump into Jareth's outstretched arms. She smiled at him.

"Why do you get yourself into so much trouble, Sarah?" He asked her gently.

"Because I know you'll always be there to catch me." She answered without thinking and wrapped her arms around his neck.

His warm smile unarmed her.

"Jareth," Sarah said quietly, "there are so many things I don't understand, and I'm honestly a little scared."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Jareth assured her, turning around and sitting on the ground with his back against the tree and Sarah in his lap.

"No, I..." She looked into his blue and brown eyes and found something in them that she would never have been able to name or describe. "I...I think...that I may be...fallinginlovewithyou?" the last few words came out in a rushed squeak.

Jareth chuckled good-naturedly. "You _think_ you _might_ be falling in love me?" He asked slowly, pronouncing each word with care.

Sarah felt her face grow warm. "Alright, then, I am falling in love with you, and it scares me."

Jareth's grin faded, "do I frighten you, Sarah? After all this time-"

"No! No, it's not you." Her hand went immediately to his jawbone, and Sarah almost regretted her impulse. "It's just...that...well, when you left and went to the oubliette, and I thought I'd wished you away, it was as if my whole world was collapsing, and then when I saw that-that monster above your head, I didn't think about what I was doing." She paused to swallow, "and when I woke up, I realized I didn't know what I would do without you, and I'm f-falling in-in love with you, and it scares me, because I've never felt like this before, and I don't know what to do with it, and it's changing me." She choked on her tears.

"There, there, Sarah." Jareth reached up and wiped her face dry. "It's alright. You'll never change into something you don't want to be. The only thing love can do is change you into a better version of yourself. I should know." He smiled warmly at her again.

Sarah felt herself blush again and looked down at the ground. "You have become really very wonderful. And you always were wonderful," she looked quickly up at him, "in your own way."

Jareth raised an eyebrow, "what is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," she shook her head and looked away again, "just that you've always had it in you."

"Ah, well, thank you for having faith in me."

Sarah looked up at him then and smiled.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Visiting Family**

Jareth was careful to never press any advantage. He had determined that he would wait until Sarah felt comfortable enough to make the next move. His hope was rekindled when she confessed that she was falling in love with him, but he restrained himself carefully, and so the months dragged on.

"Sarah," Jareth's voice came softly by her ear.

"Yes, Jareth?" She twisted her neck around so that she could look into his face.

"It's been a year." He stroked her hair gently.

"Has it?" They were sitting in the shade of the peach trees, Sarah leaning her back against his chest, and Jareth leaning his back against a tree. "What about the seasons?"

"There are no seasons here, Sarah."

"Oh. No, of course not." She turned away from him and looked at the grass by her feet. "When can I leave?"

"As soon as you want." His voice came in a husky, low tone.

"How long can I stay?" Her heart thudded against her rib cage.

Jareth hesitated. _She needs to have this chance,_ he told himself. _She needs to be able to choose._ "As long as you want."

Sarah turned and stared at him, searching his eyes and finding nothing but a sad sincerity. "As long as I want?"

Jareth nodded. "Take the crystal with you. When you're ready to come back, just call to me. I'll come fetch you."

"What about the wish? I thought it was binding."

"It was."

"What do you mean 'was'?" Sarah pulled away and sat across from him.

"Love changes things, Sarah." Jareth explained, never taking his eyes off her. "You may go and stay with your family as long as you like."

Her eyes grew wide as the implications of his words sank in. "Thank you, Jareth!" She pecked him on the cheek and ran off, vanishing in mid-leap.

He watched her go and then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "As long as you're happy, Sarah." He whispered to the peaches that had fallen to the ground around him. "That's all I want."

***

Sarah was overjoyed to see her family again, and her family felt likewise. Even her relationship between her and her step-mother seemed to have smoothed over. After spending a few days just with her family, and her dog, Merlin, she tried calling up some of her old friends from high school, but could only manage a few minutes of strained, awkward conversation before making up some excuse and hanging up the phone.

One day, two and a half weeks into her visit home, she was out to lunch with her mother, who had happened to be in town. "It's just so weird to come back," Sarah confided over her deli turkey sandwich. "Everything feels so different. It's like trying to wear a sweater that's too small."

Her mother nodded understandingly. "That's how I felt the first time I came home from college. Everything seemed so backwards, and I couldn't make it fit the way I was used to." She sighed. "But that's part of life, Sarah. Growing up means changing, and whenever you change, it changes your perspective of the world around you."

"But then how do I know where I belong?" Sarah asked with a frustrated huff.

Her mother shrugged. "You belong with someone you love." She winked conspiratorially, "as long as you have that, nothing else matters." She sipped at her iced tea. "So, tell me more about Jareth."

"Mother." Sarah chided, but couldn't keep from smiling.

"Oh, come on! I want to know! Did he ever ask you out again? Did you say 'yes'?" She was just about hopping in her seat.

"Well, no. He didn't." Sarah answered, somewhat sulkily. "I kind of scared him off, I think. I mean, we're still good friends, but, I don't think he'll ever ask me out again."

"Well, then, are you going to ask him out?"

Sarah rolled her eyes at her mother.

"Sarah, listen to me." Her mother leaned over the table and gave her as serious a look as Sarah had ever seen on her face, "this is the voice of experience talking. If you have found a guy who loves you enough to back off when you ask him to, and still hang around being your friend and taking care of you, and if he really truly makes you happy, grab him! You'll never find that kind of guy again."

Sarah sat back in her chair and considered the options: stay at home and live a normal life on earth, going to college and everything, or go back to Jareth and the goblins and the labyrinth, with occasional visits home to see her family once a year. "But how can you just give your whole life over to someone?" She asked more to herself than to her mother.

Her mother shrugged. "Trusting isn't easy, but if you don't try it, you'll never get anywhere."


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Going Home**

With a sigh, Sarah picked up the crystal and held it on her hands as she sat on her old bed. She hadn't even looked at it since she'd arrived at home three weeks prior, appearing on the doorstep without a single bag and just the crystal in her hand. Now she stared at it, trying to decide what to do.

"What would happen if I don't go back to the labyrinth?" She wondered aloud.

The crystal darkened in her hands, then revealed an older version of Sarah, acting on Broadway, with her mother, dating man after man after man, all throughout her life up until she was a shriveled old woman, living alone in a tiny apartment. Then it darkened again before showing Jareth, standing in his tower, looking over the goblin city and out into the labyrinth, giving back the babies his goblins had stolen, being kind to his subjects and taking care of them as best he could, but somehow always looking a little sad and lonely.

"Alright," Sarah sat up a little straighter, "what would happen if I do go back to the labyrinth?"

The crystal darkened again, but only for a second, before it showed her and Jareth smiling and laughing together, and baby after baby after baby between them, until there was a dark-haired child that seemed more beautiful than all the others and whose eyebrows were eerily similar to Jareth's. Sarah watched as this child grew into a handsome young man, battling the dangers of the labyrinth day in and day out, eating meals with her and Jareth, dancing with enchanted goblins at enchanted balls. The crystal faded once more and then showed her an image of the young man with eyebrows like Jareth's standing at Jareth's throne, waving Jareth's cane around. Standing behind him, near the stairs at the back of the throne room, was an older version of Jareth, white of hair and wrinkled of skin, holding the hand of an old woman with coarse dark-gray hair and deep smile wrinkles all over her face. The old Jareth turned to the old woman and kissed her just as passionately as any youth would kiss his first love.

Sarah closed her eyes and sniffed, rubbing the tears as soon as they reached her cheeks. _They're equally good lives_, she thought to herself, _just one has me ending my days alone and famous, while the other has me living forever with Jareth and apparently our son!_ The tears came harder then. Her son! She was going to have a son! Would she never have any children if she chose to stay and become an actress? _Well, honestly,_ she chided herself, _who could possibly live up to Jareth?_

She sniffled one more time and took a very deep breath, calming herself. She drew her knees up to her chin and cupped the crystal in front of her mouth.

"Jareth," she whispered, "I'm ready to go home now. Back to the labyrinth. Please come and take me away."

When nothing happened, she opened her eyes and looked down at the crystal, frowning.

"Jareth," she said a little louder, focusing her energy on the crystal, "show me Jareth."

At first, all she could see where dark gray shapes splintered by bright flashes and cut by a constant sheet of pelting rain. Then the clouds parted enough for her to see into the goblin city. Jareth was standing in the rain, directing the goblins to add more sandbags to what was already a low wall along a river.

"Oh no!" Sarah watched helplessly as Jareth ran from one vantage point to another, snatching goblins out of the flow of the river, shifting sandbags here and there. "What's happening? It never rains in the labyrinth!" _I need to be able to hear them!_ She thought desperately.

"What's going on, your majesty?" Middleweed yelled to Jareth above the whooshing of the storm.

"It's the labyrinth!" He shouted back. "It's upset because Sarah's been gone so long!"

"The labyrinth?" Middleweed tried to understand, "the last time it rained like this-"

"Yes!" Jareth agreed, crouching down in front of her, "the last time it rained like this, Sarah thought she had wished me away and I had gone to the oubliette and the labyrinth was upset because we were fighting so much. It didn't clear up until Sarah was well again. Don't worry, Middleweed! She'll come back! Then everything will go back to normal."

Middleweed nodded glumly.

A flash of lightning brighter than any of the others blared white in the crystal, and Sarah saw the tip of the flash strike the top of Jareth's tower. It held for a moment, but then it creaked and groaned and the stones began to topple.

"Go, Middleweed! Get everyone out of here!" Jareth stood straight and faced up at the crumbling tower.

"Oh no!" _I should be there,_ Sarah thought fiercely. _I need to be there!_

Jareth held out his arms as though he were going to catch the tower himself. He closed his eyes to focus, and a stray brick beaned him directly on the forehead.

"Jareth!" Sarah yelled, jumping to her feet on her bed. _I need to be there RIGHT NOW!_

_Jareth!_ She closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could until she felt the rain whipping around her. "Jareth!" She threw herself over him and concentrated harder than she'd ever concentrated before.

The bricks clattered all around them, but only against stones and cobbles.

"I'm here," Sarah whispered to the labyrinth. "I'm back, and I'm here to stay. You're going to have to put up with me visiting my family once a year, but other than that, I'm here for life. So, please, please stop this storm!"

The rain lessened and Sarah sat up a little to look down at Jareth and assess his head injury. There was a lot of bright blue blood pooling around him and Sarah's heart throbbed. "Oh, Jareth," she whispered, lifting his shoulder so that she could cradle his head in her lap. "Jareth, I need you." She closed her eyes and bent down to touch her forehead to his, wrapping her arms around his bleeding skull.

_Jareth_, she thought, _please heal._ She focused on his head, on clotting the blood and knitting the bone back together. She knew so little of human anatomy, she could only hope that what she was doing was enough, and that his body would naturally take care of any healing she might have missed.

"Sarah?"

"Jareth!" She pulled away to give him some breathing room, and watched him smile in the growing light as the clouds parted above them.

"You came back," he reached up a hand to wipe away her tears.

"Of course I came back," Sarah sniffled, catching his hand in one of her and pressing it against her cheek.

Jareth's eyebrows knitted together. "You came back on your own."

"Yes, well, oh, I'm so sorry, Jareth!" Sarah launched into her weepy excuse, "only I didn't even look at the crystal until just now, and if I had known-"

"Shh," Jareth's gentle whisper interrupted her. "You came back."

"Yes, I did, and I'll never leave again."

Jareth smiled. "Don't promise me that," he shook his head slightly. "You'll never mean that."

Sarah thought about his words and sighed. "How do you know me so well?"

"Well, it wasn't easy to figure you out, and to be quite honest, there are still some things about you that utterly baffle me." Jareth's voice was growing steadily stronger.

"How about this?" Sarah suggested gently, "I promise I'll live here for the rest of my life, and only leave to visit my family or go on other extremely important errands, but this is my home, and this is where I belong," she added, her voice dropping to a whisper, "with you." She leaned down and brushed her lips against his.

"Mmm," Jareth murmured, "sounds good to me."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Happily Ever After**

"I'm going to be late to my own ball!" The Goblin King protested.

"No you're not." Sarah responded reasonably, fiddling with the diamond-studded clasp of his cloak. "Kings are never late. Whenever they arrive is exactly the right time for them to arrive."

Jareth scowled down at her brown hair, fluffed and lightly curled, "do you know how many days I've been abed?"

"Three." She answered with a sigh, squinting to see in the dim light of the sconces along the hallway.

"Yes." Jareth replied sharply. "Three, very long days. And when you finally allow me out of bed, you can't leave me alone! Every scrape and bump I get is suddenly deadly, and it's all 'oh look, that's crooked, let me stand here half an hour and make it straight for you!'"

"You're going to destroy your hairdo if you keep thrashing like that," Sarah informed him, sticking her tongue out the corner of her mouth as she finished with the clasp, "and you'll probably give yourself a sore neck while you're at it."

"You weren't even looking at me," Jareth commented, much more calm than he had been a few seconds ago, "how did you know I was thrashing? Maybe I was just...nodding."

Sarah looked up at him and smiled. "You're Jareth. You were thrashing. Don't touch the clasp!"

"Alright! Alright! Can we go in now?"

"Just a minute..." Sarah stood back and looked him over, head to toe. "Turn, please." She held up a hand and moved her finger in a circle to indicate that she wanted him to turn all the way around. "Slowly."

"Sarah, you're being ridiculous." Jareth grumbled.

She giggled. "Leave me alone. I'm having fun." The high collar of his deep crimson coat was flipped regally up around his neck, diamond studs sparkling brightly all the way down the fancy lapels. His light pink frilly shirt peeked out above the open coat and tucked neatly into black pants. On his feet were a pair of dark red dancing boots covered in buckles and straps.

"You're being annoying is what you're doing."

Sarah sighed and looked up into his face, the faint pink across his lips and the dark tones around his eyes. "Perfect."

The Goblin King leaned down to bring his face closer to hers, "can we go in _now_?"

"Yes." She tilted her head up and kissed him on the nose, proud to see that not a drop of her dark purple lipstick had smudged off.

Jareth bowed and offered her his elbow. Sarah took it in her white-gloved hand and allowed him to lead her into the ballroom.

The goblins and citizens of the labyrinth saw their king enter the room with the most beautiful woman in the world on his arm. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face with sparkling amethyst clips that dangled chains of diamonds among her dark curls. Dark blue shimmering make up lined her eyes, a deep purple covered her lips, and her cheeks were dusted with a rosy powder.

Her dress was a strapless metallic purple with an intricate crimson design threaded into the bust. The top half was cinched around her waist and a layer of fabric fell away from her body like a short cape, while the rest of the dress, fluffed with layers and layers of crinoline, fell to her ankles, revealing her pair of one-inch deep purple heels with crisscrossed straps that allowed the world to see her purple-painted toes.

Jareth twirled her up and down the dance floor, which was soon very crowded, except for a small circle around the royal couple. They danced in their own world, staring into each other's eyes, spinning endlessly across the floor. Gradually, the guests left in ones and twos and small groups. Jareth and Sarah continued to twirl and spin even after the music had stopped and the musicians were packing up their instruments.

Jareth spun them out through a doorway and into the moonlit garden, all the way up to the peach trees. Sarah took in a long, deep breath when she spun into him for the last time that night and wrapped her arms around his waist, crushing herself against him.

The Goblin King wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his chin against her head. "I love you, Sarah," he whispered.

"I love you, too, Jareth," Sarah answered in her own hushed whisper.

Jareth's eyes flipped open when he heard this. A thousand possible things to say flashed across his mind, starting with, _you do?_ And ending somewhere along the lines of _what, only now?_

"Sarah," he said in a firm tone, pulling away from her and taking her hands in his.

"Yes, Jareth?" She turned her gray eyes on his blue and brown ones.

Jareth saw nothing but care and longing in her eyes then, and he knew that it was time. He bent down on one knee and released her hands to remove a small box from the pocket of his coat.

"Will you marry me?" He opened the box.

Sarah's eyes bulged. Set into a golden ring was a tiny clear crystal. She looked into his face, saw the confidence on the surface and the doubt lurking beneath. _What am I supposed to say? _She wondered. _I love him, I know I love him, but, still. On the other hand, who else am I going to marry if I'll be living in this labyrinth all my life?_

Her knees wobbled and she dropped to the ground, staring up into his mismatched eyes. "Yes, I will."

With trembling fingers, he slid the ring onto her finger and then clutched the back of her neck with one hand, gripping her shoulder with the other. Sarah reached up and placed a hand on either side of his face. Her lips parted ever so slightly as her eyes closed and she leaned toward him.

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_Author's Note: And that's the end of that. There are some kisses that just ought to be private. Anyway, the sequel is finished and published - "The Lady of Night". Check it out! Leave a comment! Enjoy!_


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